The First Year
by Sopphires
Summary: Caly is an ordianary kid, right? That's what she thinks. She soon discovers she is anything but and is whisked away to Hogwarts. There she makes friends with a certain family. The dark lord may have fallen but the wizarding world is far from safe.
1. The Unexpected News

The Big Unexpected News

Caly was going to boarding school. The words were like heaven. She was going to boarding school! She was actually getting away from the dump the council called a care home. She was leaving for a school where she would only have to return to the home over the summer. She would be free of her tormentors who still called her freak even though it had been years since any strange occurrence had happened. The school had a trust fund for people in her situation so there was no trouble when it came to buying things for school. This meant she was going actually going.

At that moment her happy revelry was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Catalina." Caly winced at the sound of her full name. This meant Herbert was at the door. Herbert was an old man who was one of the carers. He was old fashioned in his ways and therefore refused point blank to call anyone by their preferred nickname. He gave out punishments to people that called him Herb, namely by taking away their caffeine/sugar supply. However he was a nice old man who had been there for as long as anyone could remember and also for as long as anyone could remember he had been in his last year at the job. He kept threatening retirement, after one smart remark too many but couldn't bare to leave the children in the home.

"Yeah." Herb entered the room (the kids may not say it out loud but in their heads he was always Herb).

"Catalina there is someone here to see you."

"What?" Caly sat bolt up right on the bed. Caly had been at the home for 10 of her 11 years, it was all she could remember, but in those 10 years she had never had a visitor. "Is it family?"

"No he claims to be from a school. Odd fellow, huge man and I don't mean fat."

"The school never said they were sending anyone."

"He wants to speak to you alone, in private downstairs."

"Erm, okay I'll be right there."

Caly hopped off the bed and followed Herb down the stairs. Other kids milled around and many seemed curious as to who the person was that was visiting Caly, everyone knew she'd never had a visitor. Herb pointed her into one of the empty visiting rooms then closed the door with a strange pointed look. Caly turned around and the sight that greeted her shocked her beyond anything.

If Caly had been the fainting type she would have surely past away there and then but growing up in a rough children's home had given her a steely nerve. The man in front of her was huge. Like really huge. Like freakin gigantic. She understood what Herb had been on about, the pointed look. He towered above her, he reached the ceiling for crying out loud!

"Er hi." Caly said after an awkward pause. "You gonna sit down." The man didn't need telling twice. He sank back into the sofa with a groan, at least she thought it was him, it could well have been the sofa as he took up all of it. Caly perched herself on the arm of an armchair staring intently at him. Now he was lower down she could see his bushy black hair and beard were streaked with grey and his face was crinkled and lined but his eyes were friendly.

"Ah, I'm not as young as used to be." He said and looked good naturedly over at her "Blimey you're small." Caly, who was a midget, felt her face grow hot with embarrassment, anger and indignation.

"Blimey you're huge but I didn't say anything."

"Sorry, bit of a habit to speak my mind." Caly nodded but couldn't think of anything to say. Luckily she didn't have to because he started talking again. "Now enough about me, I'm here about you."

"Wait a moment." Caly interrupted him before she could stop herself. "What's your name?"

"Professor Rubeus Hagrid, professor of care of magical creatures and keeper of grounds and keys at Hogwarts and that's what I'm here about."

"What. What? What?" Caly was pretty sure the world was going mad. Professor of care of _magical creatures_ and what the hell was _Hogwarts_!

"I teach care of magical creatures at Hogwarts. Hogwarts is a school for people like you and me."

"What vertically challenged and vertically obtuse." Hagrid chuckled

"No, no, no. Hogwarts is a school of magic." There was a pause where Caly closed her eyes, counted to ten, pinched herself to make sure she wasn't having a bizarre dream and then opened her eyes.

"I beg your pardon."

"Hogwarts is the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world and you have a place there."

"I think there is some mistake. Even if magic exists, which it doesn't, I can't be going. I haven't applied. I'm going to a boarding school in Norfolk, it's been decided for months. I'm full scholarship I couldn't afford to go to Hogwarts." Hagrid waved away all of Caly's protests with a giant hand.

"Your names been down for Hogwarts since you were born and the school has a fund for students like you, it won't be the first time we've had an orphan from a muggle background." His face darkened slightly as if remembering something but then it brightened again.

"Wait." Caly was caught off guard when he said her name had been down since birth. "What do you mean my name has been down since birth, did my parents apply. And what's a _muggle._?""Nah, your parents were muggles, that is non-magic people, your name just has been down on the register since birth 'cause you're magic. It's the way it works. Here you've even got a letter. That's proof." He reached into his coat pocket, one of the many coat pockets, and pulled out an envelope. He handed it to her. Caly, for some inexplicable reason, felt an awed sensation rush through her body. She took the envelope. It was made of heavy parchment and on the front in green ink was written.

_Miss C. Hautly_

_The Albatross Room_

_62-66 Wakely Street_

_Chiswick _

_London_

What the hell. Those were the immediate thoughts that went through Caly's brain. How could they possibly know she slept in the room decorated with albatrosses. Each room in the care home was decorated with wild animals ranging from great white sharks to flamingos. One was given a certain amount of choice and when she moved at the age of six into a 'big' room the albatrosses had seemed the most comforting. She looked at Hagrid in disbelief. He smiled at her and mouthed 'open it'. Caly did just that. The letter was written on the same parchment and in the same ink and read

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

_Headmistress: Minerva McGonagall_

_Dear Miss Hautly,_

_We are delighted to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on the 1__st__ of September. We await your owl by no later than the 31__st__ of July._

_Yours Sincerely,_

_Filius Flitwick _

_Deputy Headmaster_

Caly was stunned. This was a sincere formal letter asking her to attend a school of magic. How could someone write a letter like that and sign it yours sincerely. Almost without thinking she unfurled the other piece of paper.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Uniform

_First year students will require:_

1. _Three sets of plain work robes (black)_

2. _One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear_

3. _One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)_

4. _One winter cloak (black silver, fastenings)_

_Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags._

Set Books

_All students should have a copy of the following:_

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) _by Miranda Goshawk _

Magical Theory _by Adalbert Waffling _

A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration _by Emeric Switch_

One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi _by Phyllida Spore_

Magical Drafts and Potions _by Arsenius Jigger_

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: 3rd Edition _by Newt Scamander, edited by Rolf _

_ Scamander_

Elementary Self Defence _by Cho Corner_

Other Equipment

_1 wand_

_1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)_

_1 set glass or crystal phials_

_1 telescope_

_1 set brass scales_

_Students may bring a broomstick if they wish to play for their house team_

_Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad_

Now the whole thing was getting out of hand. A school list that was asking her to buy robes and a cauldron, this had to be a set up.

"How do you know I'm magic?" She asked the silently waiting Hagrid. Hagrid smiled at her.

"Have you ever done things? Strange things, things you can't explain." Caly's face contorted in pain as she remembered her first three years at school.

"Yeah but it was years ago. I've stopped now. I found out how to suppress it."

"Eh?" Hagrid looked puzzled and slightly worried.

"I suppressed the urges to do….magic so often that I don't get them anymore." She watched nervously as Hagrid's face crinkled up in confusion and worry.

"I dunno if that's good Cata-"

"Caly, call me Caly."

"Right, well I dunno if that's good Caly. I'll talk to the Headmistress about it."

"Can you do magic?" Caly asked dieing to see some. "Just a tiny bit now to prove it."

"Er" Hagrid shifted around awkwardly "Not really allowed see, 'cause we're in the muggle world aren't we and I'm just not really supposed to."

"Oh," There was a short pause then Caly said."I think I believe you but I do have two more questions." She glanced at Hagrid who nodded her on. "Where can we buy this stuff?" She waved the book list "And what does it mean 'We await you owl'?"

"Ah yes." Hagrid pulled out a crumpled piece of parchment, quill and ink and to her horror a real live owl from different pockets of his coat. He wrote a note, attached it to the owl and threw it out the window. He sat back down and chuckled at the horrified expression on her face. "Owl post, the most reliable form of mail."

"Uh huh." Caly wasn't convinced.

"And as for getting your school stuff I know just the place. It's in London so it can't be far."

"There are wizards shops in London."

"If you know where to look. Now come on we don't have all day I need to get you back here at sun down."

"What we're going now?"

"Yes no time like the present come on."

Caly leapt to her feet sprinted past the inquisitive other residents of the home. Put on her shoes, grabbed her bag and went back downstairs. She met Herb and signed out with the promise to be back by sundown and that she'd call the police if anything happened. It was outside she met Hagrid. He was standing there whistling to himself and all the other pedestrians were giving him a very wide berth. He spotted her and grinned.

"Ready to go."

"Yep." Was all Caly could reply as she followed Hagrid off down the street.


	2. The Wirdest Shopping Trip Ever

The Weirdest Shopping Trip Ever

Caly had to give Hagrid this much as she hurried after him down a street in central London he really didn't care what people thought of him. He seemed oblivious to their stares. Every so often he'd turn around to make sure she was still hurrying along behind him. She had learnt a few things about wizards on this trip. The first was that they had a different currnecy because Hagrid had become very confused when buying their tube tickets. So much so that she had snatched the money off him gave the rather flustered ticked seller the correct amount and not given Hagrid back the rest. The second was that they didn't have the same sort of public transport because Hagrid kept complaining how slow it was and thirdly they didn't have the same technology because Hagrid kept staring perplexidly at the shop window displays of cameras, phones and wide screen T.V.

Her confusion about the kind of lives wizards led was hightened when Hagrid steered her off the main road and into a pub called the leaky cauldron! It was alive with people and the sound of drinkers. There were all sorts of odd people sitting around smoking pipes that emmitted purple smoke and debating loudly about something called _Quiditch? _A women in her mid-thirties with her blonde hair in pigtails turned from yelling at two small children, who were about 7, to see who'd come in through the door. Her face broke into a wide smile.

"The usual Hagrid?" She asked cheerfully.

"Can't, Hannah, sorry." Hagrid replied gesturing at Caly. The woman leaned forward and eyed Caly.

"Ah, I should have guessed, Hagrid, Hogwarts business."

"Right you are there, Hannah." Hagrid said and he guided Caly through to the yard of the pub.

"Hagrid, what the hell?" Caly began but Hagrid silenced her with a hand and pulled a pink umbrella out of the folds of his coat. Caly eyed it suspiciously.

"Stand back." Hagrid told her and she obediently backed up towards the pub. Hagrid started counting bricks and when he thought he had found the right one he tapped it with the tip of the umbrella. At once the bricks began to move to form an arch. Caly gaped at the gap they formed and the street beyond. She pinched herself once and then remembered she'd already tried that. She blinked just to make sure what she was seeing was real. It was impossibe how could a brick wall lead onto a street. There ought to be another building there. This was impossible but she could see the people and the objects, hear the people talking and owls hotting and smell some strange things. It was real. She turned to Hagrid.

"Alright you've convinced me it's real." Hagrid laughed loudly and strode off down the street, Caly hurrying after him. The wizards and witches seemed completely oblivious to the fact there was a huge man walking in her midst but she noticed a lot of people, especially the children, greeted Hagrid with the same cheerful smiles as Hannah and he often used their first names. Caly was puzzled at first but then remembered Hagrid was a teacher, a likeable one at that.

"Alright first stop for us is Gringgotts Wizarding Bank." Hagrids voice carried easily over the crowds.

"But I don't have any money." Caly said panicking slightly.

"I know I just need to change the rest of the muggle money into our money." So Caly had been right the wizards did have their own currency.

Gringotts Wizarding Bank was a huge building of white marble. Caly had to admit that it was kind of awe inspiring and breath taking. However the building was nothing compared to the people who ran it. They were short, ugly, angry looking things, that looked suspiciously like "Are those what the hell I think they are?" Hagrid looked at her very seriously before lowering his voice and saying

"Yeah they're goblins alright. Never get on the wrong side of them." Caly looked at them nervously.

"I won't."

Caly and Hagrid left Gringgotts less than five minutes later with all but £10 of the money changed into gold galleons, silver sickles and bronze knuts. They immediately headed along the street to start shopping. They got her her cauldron and glass phials from a funny looking man who stuttered every time he addressed Hagrid, her books came from Flurish and Blots which was the largest bookshop she had ever seen. Madame Malkin an elderly witch fitted her Hogwarts robes whilst muttering she was too old for the job. It didn't take long to get everything because Hagrid knew the street called daigon alley like the back of his hand. The last thing left was the wand. Hagrid took her towards ollivanders and told her how Ollivander was far over a hundred but still did his job as if he were 30.

Caly thought Ollivanders shop was the creepiest she had been in by a long way when she entered. There were shelves upon shelves of thin boxes no doubt containing wands. Mr Ollivander soon came wheezing over to her and after establishing which was her wand arm proceeded to take some measurements, that got increasingly pointless. By the time it was measuring a hair on her head Mr Ollivander stopped and stared at her.

"It is the norm to try many wands until you find the right one but I made a wand on impulse not yesterday. It had to be made for today and you are the only person to enter my shop with any kind of aura. Therefore." With a flurish he produced a thin box from the inside of his robes. "The core is all three cores banded together; unicorn tail hair, dragon heartstring and phoenix tail feather. The wood is a combination of rose, yew and holly.12 inches exactly. Supple and springy but sturdy and strong. I have never attempted anything like that in all my life, try."

Caly took the wand and held it feeling stupid. Mr Ollivander face fell and Caly felt bad for letting him down. Caly was the kind of person that liked to please others and felt happy by making them happy. As soon as she felt this happiness sparks began to fly from the wand. Mr Ollivanders face lit up in pure joy and Caly couldn't help laughing. Then wands, in there boxes, flew from the shelves and flew around her in circles. Everything in the shop began to be drawn towards her like she was some giant, freak magnet. As soon as Caly started to panic and stop feeling so joyful the wands fell to the floor and the magnetism stopped. There was a pause and then Hagrid burst into applause. Mr Ollivander nodded, half smiling as he placed the wand back in the box.

"As I thought' this wand is made for you. Even I, who can use every wand in the shop to a certain extent, could not produce a spark from it. The wands balance and length was wrong but on you..." He trailed off looking thoughtful. "Hmmm I must investigate the blending off the cores and woods more carefully. Take good care of that wand. You will never find one to replace it."

They left Ollivanders in silence. Caly was thinking extensively about what Ollivander had told her. Was she destined for this wand? What if it was broken or stolen? Would she then have to live her life as a muggle? What the hell! She thought to herself; the man was a crackpot. The way he was talking it made it sound like the cores and the woods had told him to make the wand. That was impossible! Yep the guy was insane. Besides he was seeing auras. That was enough for her. Whether she believed Ollivanders words or not she had decided one thing. It had been **the **weirdest shopping trip ever!


	3. Another Hidden Entrance

Another Hidden Entrance

It was here! Caly jumped out of bed. The first of September! It was here! It was Sunday 1st September 2016! Today she was going to Hogwarts! There were times when she thought it had all been a crazy wonderful dream but then she saw Herb's face and she knew it wasn't. Herb was the only person who knew the truth. This was because Caly couldn't keep her Hogwarts' things in her room without someone finding them and someone had to know she wasn't going to school in Norfolk. Herb had agreed grudgingly to keep her Hogwarts' thing in his house because he lived alone and no one ever came to visit. That was kind of sad but at the same time Herb spent so much time at the children's home that he practically lived there. He had agreed to drop her off at Kings Cross at 10:30 to catch her train to Hogwarts. The train didn't leave until 11 but she didn't want to miss it and she wanted to make herself comfortable because it sounded like a long journey. Caly also had a nagging suspicion that platform 9 ¾ wasn't going to be easy to find because…well because it was called platform 9 ¾. She guessed the entrance would be hidden and she would have to find.

She had eaten and dressed in normal clothes, Hagrid had given her strict instructions that she should change on the train. She was too excited to sit still and read. She couldn't wait to be on the train and heading to school. She practically bouncing off the walls which annoyed all the older kids who wanted to enjoy the last day of their holidays. When Herb arrived at 5 to 10 she was seconds from being punched in the face. Caly had packed everything the night before so she was completely ready. She said goodbye but no one was sorry to see her leave, in fact she was pretty sure she heard some sighs of relief. Some of the little kids waved goodbye to her from the window and she waved back until they were out of sight. She then sat back and relaxed. She was on her way to Hogwarts.

The drive to Kings Cross was 30 minutes of pensive silence. Herb hadn't said anything about her being a witch but she was pretty sure he wasn't overly keen on the idea. He obviously thought she'd turn people into frogs but she knew better. Caly had been told by Hagrid that once she started Hogwarts she was not allowed to do it outside school. The punishment was expulsion and getting your wand snapped in two and Caly really didn't fancy that. She thought her wand was beautiful and the thought of it getting snapped in two was more than she could bare. Besides she would only be at the home for six weeks in the summer. Hagrid had told her that, like the other boarding school, she could stay there at Christmas and Easter holidays. Hogwarts didn't seem to have half terms.

Herb loaded her trunk onto the trolley for her and wheeled it into the station for her. He then proceeded to wish her luck. He said how much he was looking forward to seeing her in summer when she would be a whole year older. He then gave her a long hug and left. This left Caly standing in complete shock. Herb wasn't really the touchy feely type, much like herself. She had expected the best wishes and a handshake. This must be why he never retired from the home; he was much to attached to the children there. Come to think of it in 10 years Caly had never once heard him raise his voice. Not even when the boys got themselves arrested or you stole from others. Wow, he was such a nice guy.

HOOT! Caly jumped and looked round. The clock read 10:37. Had she really been standing there for 7 minutes. She looked around and saw the signs for 9 and 10. She followed them and sure enough saw platform 9 and 10 but no 9 ¾. Big surprise. Why hadn't Hagrid told her how to get on to the platform. HOOT! She heard it again and this time she realised what it was. It was an owl! She hurriedly glanced and saw a family making there way towards the barrier between 9 and 10. She hurried over to them.

"Excuse me. Excuse me. Sir!" She finally caught up with the man. He was tall and had white blonde hair that was slowly but surely thinning. His pointed chin poked over the top of his black coat. Next to him was a women. She was pretty nondescript, the kind of women that fitted in anywhere. The son looked about her age and was the spitting image of his father with white blonde hair, a pointed chin and grey eyes. Looking more carefully she noticed a difference between them. The mans eyes were cold and hard but the boys were warm and sparkly.

"What is it?" The man asked commandingly.

"Can tell me how to get onto platform 9 ¾. I heard you owl." The owl was perched on top of the trunk on the trolley the man was pushing. The man sneered and pushed her over so she fell into her trunk. He stalked away with his wife. His son dithered but finally gave into his fathers will and hurried after him. She quickly gathered up her things and glanced at the clock. 10:42. She was panicking ever so slightly. She looked around but couldn't see the family. Then someone tapped her on the shoulder.

Caly jumped and turned around. To her great surprise she saw the pale boy from earlier. He kept glancing over his shoulder nervously. Up close Caly could see that the features of his face made him look like a mirror image of his father except the eyes. Now the eyes were filled with nervousness, anticipation and…regret.

"Look I'm really sorry about my dad. I can't explain now but are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Look you see the barrier between 9 and 10."

"Yep."

"It's magic run through and you'll end up on 9 ¾. Got to go. Watch." Caly watched as the pale blonde boy stood facing the barrier and then ran straight at it. He didn't crash he just….vanished. Caly blinked and looked around, no one had noticed. She considered it and glanced at the clock. 10:43. She had just over 15 minutes. This was her best shot. She gripped her trolley firmly and ran towards the barrier. She waited for the impacted. It was coming…any minute….now.

She didn't crash! She passed straight through the barrier. Caly opened both eyes and saw the sign hanging over her head; platform 9 ¾, she'd made it. She pushed her way through the crowds of people and realised she was one of the few people there on her own. She searched for the pale boy and spotted him standing next to his mother and father. He looked utterly bored and a little irritated. Caly waved at him and he grinned and winked then jerked his head at the train and mouthed 'get a compartment'.

Caly sat inside her compartment and watched the pale boy with his father and mother. His mother kept showering him in hugs and kisses and seemed to be crying. His father sat there stiff and not showing any emotion except a cold glance at his son who seemed to return it and a brief nod at people she couldn't see. She heard the warning whistle and jumped. It was 10:58. She hadn't realised it had got to that time. It had taken a while to get onto the train because her trunk was too heavy for her to life by herself. In the end a girl called Victorie, who was head girl, got her boyfriend, who had bright blue hair, to help her after their snogging was interrupted by a boy who she thought was her cousin.

"Hey." Caly looked up and saw the pale boy again. "Can I sit with you?" Caly rolled her eyes.

"Sure." He dragged his trunk in and together they heaved it up into the luggage rack and sat down opposite each other with matching looks of anticipation. They felt the train judder beneath them. They were off to Hogwarts.


	4. The Train Journey

The Train Journey

Caly and the boy sat in silence for a few moments. Their faces were mirrors of each other showing the excitement, nerves and joy of being off to Hogwarts. Caly was also pretty pleased that she seemed to have already made one friend. Then she realised she didn't know his name and he didn't know hers. She couldn't keep calling him 'the pale boy' inside her head.

"My name's Caly. Caly Hautly. Well actually my real name is Catalina but I prefer Caly."

"What like the flower?" The boy asked.

"Flower?"

"Oh yeah I forgot. In our world there's a flower called Catalina. It's really, really rare. There isn't one in the greenhouses in Hogwarts and that's saying something. It can cure any sickness, heal any wound no matter what's infected it. It's petals contain the elixir of life so if you crushed them and drank the juice regularly you'd be immortal."

"Wow."

"Yeah. My name's Scorpius, by the way, Scorpius Malfoy." Caly nodded unable to think of anything to say. Then she asked the question that she had really wanted to know the answer of ever since he had told her how to get onto platform 9 ¾.

"Why does your dad hate me?" Scorpius sighed.

"He doesn't hate you per se. He just people like you."

"What do you mean?"

"He hates people who are muggle born. My father is a blood purist." Scorpius' face was contorted with anger, hate and disgust. "He is pure blood, all wizard blood, he thinks that's the only type there should be. You're muggle born, no wizard blood, he thinks you're scum." There was pause as Scorpius gave the window stares that would melt the glass.

"And you?" Scorpius looked at her very seriously. "I despise all my father's ideals. However I will fully understand if you wish to vacate this compartment. I just hate the reputation I will have to dismantle." Caly examined him for a second and then she decided she believed him. Then the compartment door opened.

A boy and a girl walked inside. The boy had untidy jet black hair, green eyes and glasses. The girl had brown hair, eyes and a good smattering of freckles. They were talking happily until they spotted Scorpius and their faces became very serious. Caly frowned and looked between them. Scorpius' face had become exasperated. He turned to Caly.

"This is what I meant about dismantling my father's reputation."

"What do you mean?"

"My dad went to school with their parents. He was in the same year as his dad and her mum and dad. They hated each other. He also hated his mum." Scorpius gestured back at the boy "She was the year below but she was her." He gestured at the girl again. "dad's little sister. No doubt they have been well indoctrinated in the horrible things that happened between Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter. I don't doubt the fact that they already hate me." Scorpius looked deflated and Caly felt sorry for him.

"Well that's ridiculous. You haven't even met. You can't hate each other just because of what happened between your parents, some people turn out to be very different than their parents. You should take a chance to get to know each other. Do you hate him?" She asked the two cousins standing in the doorway. They looked at each other and then the boy said

"You're muggle born."

"I know. Does it really matter? I've already been knocked over by his dad for being that so if you're going to give me grief please find another compartment." They both looked shocked and then shook their heads vigorously.

"No, no we don't mean that at all. My mum is muggle born." The girl said "We just wondered because if he's sitting with you knowing you're muggle born he must be different from his dad." There was another awkward pause before Scorpius said

"Are you going to sit down then?" The two looked at each other and then hauled their trunks into the luggage racks and sat down opposite each other, with the girl next to Caly and the boy slightly awkwardly next to Scorpius. They sat in silence for a moment before they remembered that Caly didn't know who they were.

"I'm Rose Weasly." She proffered her hand.

"Catalina Hautly, Caly." She shook Rose's hand.

"Hey we're both named after flowers, weird." Both girls laughed and then the boy stuck out his hand.

"Albus Severus but everyone calls me Al." Caly looked at him carefully as she shook his hand.

"Do you have an older brother?"

"Yeah I do, how do you know?"

"Well when I was trying to get my trunk onto the train I was near this couple who were er… snogging and then this boy who looks like you except with _neat _black hair and brown eyes comes up and interrupts them. Then the girl, Victorie, got her boyfriend who had _blue_ hair to lift my trunk onto the train. It was weird she kept calling him Teddy."

"Yeah that was my brother James and Victorie is our cousin and Teddy is my god brother."

"And you two are cousins, right?"

"Yep." When their conversation ended Scorpius turned to Albus and offered him his hand. Albus looked at it confused and then took it saying.

"My name is Albus Severus Potter it is a pleasure to meet you."

"My name," Scorpius replied "Scorpius Hyperon Malfoy and it is a delight to meet you too." They kept sombre expressions for a few more seconds whilst Caly and Rose shared raised eyebrows and fought to contain their giggles. Then all four of them collapsed in laughter. When Scorpius repeated it with Rose you could barely hear what they were saying because they were laughing so hard.

Just after they had come to their senses their compartment door opened. The head girl Victorie walked in and smiled at her cousins and Caly. She frowned ever so slightly at Scorpius and then shrugged it off figuring that, seeing as, Rose and Albus were sitting there by choice, there wasn't a problem.

"Are you alright; Al, Rose?""Yes Vic we're fine." Rose said, whilst Al rolled his eyes.

"Well I did have to check up on my baby cousins you know."

"We aren't your _baby _cousins Vic. Lily, Hugo and Lucy are all younger than us."

"Yes but they aren't on this train. At Hogwarts you two are the babies of the family, get used to it." With that she left, her long silvery hair whipping behind her. Scorpius was staring curiously at her.

"Is she part veela?" he asked slowly after a long pause.

"Yeah, a bit." said Al "It's funny though cause Dom, she's her younger sister, looks nothing like that. Dom's ginger like her dad and then Louis is like, full on veela you wouldn't think him and uncle Bill were related."

"What's a veela?" Caly asked cautiously not wanting to offend them. Al looked at Rose, who glanced at Scorpius who just shrugged.

"It's kinda hard to explain." He said finally glancing back across at Rose and Al looking for support.

"They're really beautiful women." Rose said confidently. "They have this kind of weird charm on people but you don't want to get on the wrong side of a true veela 'cause they transform into ugly birds heads and grow talons. They originally come from Bulgaria I think."

"Well Victorie, Dominique and Louis aren't Bulgarian sounding name. They seem more French."

"Yeah aunt Fleur is French which is why she doesn't have the whole bird side, she's not a proper veela."

"Are there male veela?" The three glanced between each other again.

"Not sure I've never seen one but there must be some."

"So your cousin…Louis? Has this charm?"

"Yeah, he can get away with anything. I swear he could murder someone and the law enforcement guys would throw it out the door." Albus, Rose and Scorpius all laughed and nodded but Caly didn't get the joke properly so she searched for more conversation.

"So you have a lot of cousins."

"Oh yeah." said Rose "We have loads of cousins. I have a little brother called Hugo and Al has an older brother James, as you already know, and a little sister Lily."

"Another flower."

"Yep."

"And then there's all our other cousins who we aren't quite as close to." Al cut in. "There's 7 others; Victorie's oldest, then Fred II he's two years younger, then Molly II who's a year younger than Fred, Roxanne and Dominique are a year younger than that, then there's James, me and Rose, then Lily and Hugo are two year's younger than us, Louis a year younger than them and finally baby Lucy who is 7." There was a pause after this impressive list. Caly mouthed at Scorpius 'wow'. He nodded and then asked.

"Are all those at Hogwarts in Gryffindor?"

"No, actually only James, Fred and Roxie are."

"Really? I thought these things run in families, I mean I want to break mines tradition, but 'cause you all were."

"Well Aunt Fleur never went here she was at Beaubaton and Aunt Audrey was a Hufflepuff."

"I guess it wouldn't take much to guess that none went to Slytherin."

"No." Rose said crisply. "Vic and Dom and in Ravenclaw and Molly went to Hufflepuff."

"Ahh, and where do you want to go?" Their answers were instantaneous and the same.

"Gryffindor."

"Thought so." Scorpius smirked.

"Well do you want to go."

"Not really sure." Scorpius looked worried. "I really don't want to end up in Slytherin but I'm kinda worried about what may do if I'm not. Sometimes I want to go Gryffindor just to really annoy dad but sometimes I think that Ravenclaw would be a better compromise; I mean there's nothing wrong being intelligent and witty." Rose nodded and Albus grinned at him and then turned to Caly.

"What about you?"

"Huh? I don't know what you're talking about." They all looked dumbfounded.

"Didn't you read your books?" Scorpius gaped out eventually.

"I couldn't keep them in the care home with me, other kids would find them. They stayed with Herb."

"What?"

"Herbert, but we mentally and verbally, when he's not in earshot, call him Herb."

"Okay and who is he?"

"The only carer who knows the truth."

"Oh."

"But anyway what are Griffindoor, Ravensclaw, Hufflenpuff and Slithering?" It was possible that they were more shocked by what she had just said. Then they all launched into explanation.

"They're the houses!-"

"We basically live with which one we're put in-"

"It's Ravenclaw, it's not like a raven owning a claw-"

"You can own points for doing good stuff and get docked for being naughty-"

"The one who has the most points wins the cup-"

"We also play inter-house quidditch, but you don't know what that is-"

"Four teachers our heads of houses and sometimes they aren't impartial-"

"There are divisions between the houses; Slytherin and the rest of the school especially Gryffindor-"

"We are sorted by our attributes-"

"Wait, STOP!" They went quiet. Caly pointed at Al. "What did you just say?"

"I said we are sorted by our attributes."

"Meaning?"

"Well the four houses have different traits associated with them. Gryffindor's are brave, chivalrous and daring. Ravenclaw's are clever, witty and you know just ridiculously intelligent. Hufflepuff are loyal, trustworthy and caring. Slytherin's are cunning, sly and er…." Al trailed off glancing over at Scorpius.

"You can say it. They are manipulative."

"Yeah so you get the picture."

"Yeah think so but I don't think I suit any of those houses."

"Well that's kind of the point of the sorting, it finds a place for you."

They spent a lot of time after that discussing Hogwarts, or rather Caly sat and listened whilst the others related the stories their families had told them. She didn't mind not being an active participant in the conversation because it gave her a good chance to find out a lot about her new school. She had been so focused on shopping with Hagrid that she had neglected the opportunity to find out a lot of information. A lot of Al and Rose's family seemed to have a nose and appetite for trouble. Scorpius didn't have much to say either 'cause he obviously wasn't keen on talking about his dad and Caly had a suspicion the older Malfoy didn't have a general chat with his son.

Her next shock came when the lunch trolley arrived at around 1:00. She was amazed she had been on the train for 2 hours already it had seemed so much shorter. When the old women rattled up next to their compartment. Caly, with a sinking heart realised she had completely forgotten that the journey may be a long one and had therefore forgotten to pack some food, had no money; muggle or wizard. Her three friends had stood up and were all rummaging around in their trunks and pockets for money. Caly's money troubles, however, were forgotten when she saw the contents of the trolley.

It was completely….different! She was staring at the strangest assortment of snacks ever. There were strange pastries and sweets that were like the magical variety of muggle sweets. Her three friends were watching her with an amused expression on all their faces.

"I guess it would be to much to ask for a tuna sandwich?" They all collapsed around laughing and bought their sweets. When they came back in she had not expected them to have their arms full with what looked like all the trolley. They threw it onto the empty seats before chucking random packets at her.

"What the?"

"We decided we would show the wizard way of things."

"But I-I couldn't take-I can't take-"

"Just eat the food."

The rest of the journey passed quickly. They changed into their robes at one point but then went back to eating sweets and talking. Caly was fascinated by their sport Quidditch. It was played on brooms! It sounded fun but Caly was afraid of heights so it was a big no for her. She managed to eat every type of sweet there. She even ploughed her way through a whole box of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Bean, swallowing even the most disgusting bogey flavoured one. This feat of courage made the others all sure she would land herself in Gryffindor.

Caly had completely forgotten her nerves by the end of the journey. She was high on sugar and she was with people she could count as friends. She was bemused by the fact she had made three friends on the train ride as she had always been labelled as 'freak' and 'weirdo'. But then she realised that what made her stand out in the muggle world made her fit in the wizard one. This didn't stop all the fearers returning when the train pulled to a stop at Hogsmead station.


	5. Sorted

Sorted

They filed off the train in completely in silence, or the first years did. The older years talked loudly and greeted friends who they hadn't met on the train. It was a highly intimidating position to be in as Caly was nearly a head shorter than all the other first years who were all small to begin with. Being pushed around by a load of older students was actually quite scary. She was separated from her friends and could hear someone familiar shouting.

"First years o'er here." She was pushed to the ground and people stood on her without noticing her. She curled into a ball and waited for it all to end. The frequency off people tripping on her was decreasing. Then she felt someone out a hand on her shoulder and then lift her onto her feet. She dusted herself off and examined her hands. They were red and sore but they seemed to be not badly damaged. She looked up and saw the black haired boy who had interrupted Victorie on the platform. He looked even more similar to Albus up close, though he had brown eyes, black hair that had a reddish tint in the light and a couple of freckles on his nose meaning he looked quite a lot like Rose.

"Er.. Thanks, James, for saving me back there."

"No problem." They stood awkwardly and Caly was glad that this was happening in relative darkness because she found her self blushing. She knew it was because she had basically made a fool of herself in front of, undoubtedly, one of the most popular kids in school. She'd seen the stares that had been given to Rose and Al, but mainly Al. Caly had drawn the logical conclusion that the Potters must be really rich, famous or popular, possibly all three.

"Come on." James said eventually. "I'd best take you to Hagrid before he leaves without you and the carriages leave without me." James guided her by the elbow. Caly had to admit that she was still feeling a little fuzzy so only one thing registered in the sentence.

"Hagrid? The giant bloke?"

"Yeah, you know him?"

"He gave me my letter."

"Ah. That's what happened to my dad." Caly nodded. "I'm guessing that's how you know my name." He through this out casually but Caly knew enough to know that James was genuinely interest as how a muggle born knew his name.

"What? Er….no, actually I saw you on the platform. Your cousin got her boyfriend to lift my trunk onto the train after you disturbed them and then Al and Rose came to sit with us and I recognised the similarities between you, and Rose too I guess."

"Oh." They paused as they reached the shore and saw a little fleet of boats departing into the distance.

"Sh-oot."

"Wh-What's wrong?"

"All the first years cross the lake to school in the boats and if the boats have left it means the carriages have left too. Come on! We need to get into the grounds before they close the gates!" James grabbed Caly's elbow again and they ran back across the station and up towards the gates. To both their horror the gates were closing, albeit slowly but they were definitely closing. They ran across the paved path up to the gates.

They were gap was shrinking and Caly wondered it they'd actually make it. James roughly pushed her in front of him muttering how 'your part of the feast is more important.' She made it through and James squeezed through the gap sideways just afterwards. They stood there panting, breathing heavily, hands on knees. The adrenaline was coursing through them and they were grinning manically at each other. They couldn't believe they had made it through the gates. The gap had seemed so small. It had been fun and she knew James had enjoyed it too.

Eventually they recovered and began walking briskly towards the school. Hogwarts was a huge castle. The sheer scale was pretty mind blowing. The windows glittered like citrine quartz (a precious stone). She couldn't understand the peculiar feeling she got looking at it. She would have passed it off as some peculiar feeling to do with being in a place full of magic but she knew it had something to do with that this would be home for most of the year. She was planning on spending Christmas and Easter here.

"Are we going to be in trouble?"

"What?" James seemed to have been in a world of his own but then frowned as she repeated what she said "I can't see old McGonagall given us detention for missing the boat and carriages. You'll have to tell her, though, she'll probably think I'm making it up. I have a bit of a reputation as a pranking jokester." He said in answer to her questioning gaze.

"Oh."

They trudged on in silence. Caly found it unnerving; the noises from the forest, the creeping shadows that seemed to grow and move and, for some reason, James' silence. She had always pegged James as being loud by what she had seen on the platform and his confession about being a jokester and prankster. She found his silence weird. He had proven himself to be a confident, head-strong person. He probably had other things on his mind. What an uproar there would be when James Potter went missing. Though she didn't understand really what had happened. He understood that their father must be very famous. She turned back to the creepy, seemingly, moving shadows.

Caly blinked. She stared into the shadows by the edge of the forest. There was a shadow moving out there. She couldn't tell whether it was an animal or human but it seemed to be coming their way and she was pretty sure James hadn't noticed. Caly squinted at the moving shadow, focusing on it as best she could whilst moving at the brisk pace James had set. She thought it was a human, it shadow seemed to match theirs but just taller. She felt around for James' wrist and squeezed it to attract his attention. He jumped slightly.

"What?" he said at normal volume.

"Shhh. I think there's a person over there." Caly whispered this whilst she pointed in the direction of the figure. He squinted and then went a little pale.

"Yeah it looks like a person but who?"

"No idea. What do we do?"

"Keep walking casually. Try to make them think that they are safe." They continued walking in a very tense silence. Each twig being touched by the breeze was the soft footfall of a kidnapper. The soft crunch as the bird landed on the branch made her look over her shoulder. They were both furtively throwing glances at the persons shadow. They were still moving along, almost parallel to them but just half a step behind. Then James hit himself.

"James!"

"Sorry. I just remembered." James dug around in his pocket and pulled out a crumbled, very old piece of paper.

"Wha-"

"No time." He muttered so quietly that she barely caught his words. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." The map became covered in neat ink lines and tiny dots. She peered closer and saw it was a map!

"Wow!" James nodded. He began scanning the map. Caly soon caught on and pointed to the two ink dots labelled 'James Sirius Potter' and 'Catalina Hautly'. Then she heard James gasp. She tried to look at the name of the black dot that was almost parallel with them but James had already murmured

"Mischief managed." and the map went blank. "Come on" James was half running. The castle was much closer. They were speeding up but so was the figure. He was also cutting across the grass.

"James!" she cried as the distance between them became slighter and slighter. For the second time she found herself running full pelt towards a set of doors. But it was no use. The person was bigger and faster. They had reached the steps the man threw himself at her.

Caly crashed into the steps. She felt her head collide painfully with the top front step of Hogwarts. She let out a scream of pain and then another of fear. He was pressing his wand to her neck, painfully. He was pulling her hair and she screaming in pain as each prod from his wand sent a painful spasm through her body. James was trapped beneath her. Her wand was out of reach and even if she could what would be the point? She couldn't do any magic. The best thing she could with a wand would be to poke him in the eye, actually that wasn't such a bad idea. No!, don't get distracted.

"Give it to me!" The man was shouting in her face.

"What?" Caly could feel herself nearly sobbing.

"Give it to me or you die! And then I can kill Potter's son! Things are getting so much better!"

"Give you what? I don't have a clue what you're talking about!"

"Liar!" A particularly painful spasm shot through her.

"I swear." she sobbed. "Please don't hurt me or James! Don't you think I'd give it to you if I knew what it was! What is more important than my and my fiends lives?"

"Ha!" The man spat. "You really don't have a clue! If you had you would never have that attitude."

"So now will you let me go?" Caly was pretty sure she knew what the answer would be and why.

"NO! I can't let you go. Trust me you'll be glad you died this way, no pain."

"But I don't know who you are!"

"Ahh, you're relatively smart, well that's all well and good but the Potter boy certainly does." Caly's hand had been groping the ground to find something to hit him with and she was pretty sure she had found something. The trouble was she thought that she was lying on part of it so the best she could do was move up a bit and swing at him.

"Who'll go first?"

"Me." Caly said defiantly. "I'm not afraid of death." That was lie but she hoped the man wouldn't see that. She was trying to catch him off guard. It did the job perfectly. He released the pressure a bit in the shock and she took her moment because it was the only chance she had. She brought the solid something up and heard James give a cry of 'Arrgh' moments before it slammed into the mans face. She realised in those seconds she had used James' foot. She shoved him off her and pulled James to his feet. She stamped once on his wand and heard it crack before darting in.

They leaned against the door trying to comprehend what had just happened. They had been attacked in Hogwarts. She had thought Hogwarts a really safe place, maybe because it was a castle but she had assumed there had been rules in place to stop psychopathic maniacs murdering students. She felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see James.

"You okay?" Caly shrugged and then looked around.

"What now?"

"Well I think we're going to have to go to the feast, you need to be sorted."

"Oh." James led her across to a set of giant oak doors. They both leaned against them for a moment before they pushed them open.

Silence descended when they entered the hall. This was probably to be expected it was James Sirius Potter who had been missing (Caly knew of his middle name from the map.). Quite a lot of people were giving her curious stares. Then she remembered she had been rolling around on the front steps. Her robes were filthy and ripped. Her hair was a complete mess and the right side of her head hurt more than she could believe. There was also some blood from her fall. James was just dirty, dishevelled and limping because of how she'd grabbed his ankle.

Professor McGonagall was the first to recover from their state. "Filius." She said to a tiny man with a very white beard. "Fetch the stool and the hat, please, we have one student left to sort." The man hurried out of the hall muttering and wiping his wrinkled face with a handkerchief. "Mr Potter kindly take your seat at Gryffindor. Miss Hautly kindly wait up here, Professor Flitwick will return with the sorting hat and stool soon.

It was easily some of the most awkward moments ever in her life. The teachers all settled down quickly and resumed their conversations. However they kept looking at her. Only Hagrid made eye contact and she swiftly gave him the thumbs up to say she was okay. The students were worse. Many did not resume their meal but opted to stare at her. The ones eating kept throwing her glancing but much less subtle than the ones the teachers gave.

Flitwick arrived holding the hat and stool and everyone stopped eating. They were given a chance to stare and they took full advantage of it. Flitwick placed the stool down and she sat on it. She glanced at the Gryffindor table, they all gave her the thumbs up; Rose, Albus, James, some people that were cousins and Scorpius, it seemed he'd got the best and worst deal. Then the hat went on her head and Scorpius flew from her head by what the hat was doing.

'_Hmmm'_ a voice said.

"_Are you the hat?"_

"_Mmmhmm. Now about you. Not Slytherin you don't fit. I could never put a muggle born there. Besides you aren't cunning, ambitious yes but cunning no. Ravenclaw could take you far, for you have brains in great amounts. Yes a thirst for knowledge, Ravenclaw would do you good. Your mind thinks in a way have seen many Ravenclaws' work. You value everything Hufflepuff holds dear. Your loyalty extends to any who do you a kindness. Receive a little and you will pay back a lot more. Compassionate, too I see. Your up bringing has taught that. But how you have courage, a strong Gryffindor you would make. Yes just now, out in the grounds. You showed more courage than many would have, more than you think. Your statement was as far from the truth as you may think. You would readily die had he held a friend. I guess….it's your choice."_

"_My choice?"_

"_Yes pick a house."_

_"Fine Gryffindor with my friends,."_

"_Very well."_

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat bellowed and Caly jumped up and ran across to her friends. They squeezed up and she ended up opposite James.

"How does it feel being a Gryffindor?"

"Fantastic!" Then she collapsed.


	6. The Inner Circle of Hogwarts

The Inner Circle of Hogwarts

Caly felt really groggy. There were loads of hazy shapes hanging over her. She closed her eyes and struggled to get her memories in order. She'd got off the train with Al, Rose and Scorpius, then she had been trampled by the crowd on the platform. Then James had helped her up and they'd had a brief conversation. She'd missed the boats and carriages. They were nearly locked out of the grounds. They had walked up to the castle in the silence. Then she'd noticed the figure and James had pulled out the funny map. He'd knocked her over and she'd knocked her head. Then it started getting fuzzy. What had he wanted to do? What was it?

"JAMES!" She sat straight up on bed and her eyes flew open this time seeing clearly. She saw a rather large group around her bed. There was Rose, Al, Scorpius, Professor McGonagall, Hagrid, a man and women she didn't recognise and, she breathed a sigh of relief, James. The woman she didn't recognise bustled forward and started checking her over.

"Right you seem fine except for mild concussion. What's the last thing you remember?"

"The man jumped at me and he wanted something. He was…" She shuddered and Rose reached out and squeezed her hand tightly. "He was using his wand to hurt me." She could feel tears threatening. "Then he said he was going to kill me and James." A couple of tears spilled down her cheeks. Scorpius was rubbing her arm, now, and Al was squeezing her shoulder. James looked pale as he sat in his chair. "Then I'm not really sure, it all gets kind of fuzzy." She looked at James.

"You grabbed my foot." He said. "You hit the man on the head with it. You pulled me up and then something went crack, you stood on his wand we found the remains last night, and we ran inside. We went into the great hall. You had your sorting late. You're in Gryffindor with Rose, Al, Scorpius and me." He said Scorpius' name with slight distaste. "You sat down at the table and then you collapsed."

"Wait, so what time is it?"

"It's 2 o'clock on Sunday." Rose said.

"Now, I want you to stay here for the rest of the day and night and if, if you feel better you may go to your classes tomorrow."

"Who are you?" Caly posed this question in the politest way she could.

"I am the Madame Pomfrey II. I am the matron of the hospital wing."

"And you?" she asked the man.

"Professor Longbottom." He shook her free hand gently. "Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts and Head of Gryffindor." She nodded.

"So do you know who he was?"

"No he was long gone when we searched the grounds. Are best hope is to trace his wand."

"But I thought-" She trailed off when she saw James' almost non-existent head shake.

"You thought what, Miss Hautly?" McGonagall asked sharply.

"I thought James knew because the man said James could identify him, it was the main reason he wanted to kill us." She looked at James who looked horrified.

"You missed that part didn't you James." Professor Longbottom said kindly. He nodded numbly.

"What?"

"James, too, took a knock to the head. He was dazed immediately, he cannot recall all the conversation."

"Did you recognise him James?" She noted the drop of his surname.

"No, it's all so confused."

"Come, Neville, Hagrid. We will leave Miss Hautly to her rest, we have matters to discuss."

Professor McGonagall, Longbottom and Hagrid did not speak until they had reached the stone gargoyle that guarded the revolving spiral staircase to her office. 'Armando Dippet' she told it briskly. It jumped aside swiftly and they ascended the spiral staircase. Once they entered her office she took a seat behind the desk and faced the two other professors.

"Well?" The question hung between them. Then Neville asked

"Minerva, should we not bring Pomona, Horace and Filius into this. That way we only tell those with _experience _and we will cover most of her lessons." Minerva McGonagall thought about it silently whilst admiring the change in the man.

"You are right, it seems foolish to keep it among ourselves. Winky!" She called out and an elf appeared at once.

"Yes ma'am." Winky was a very old but trusty house elf. After the second war she had finally got over the fact she had been given clothes and dedicated herself to the school. Now she was getting on in years McGonagall made sure she wasn't doing anything too hard and always called on her if she needed a message delivered.

"Please bring Professors Flitwick, Sprout and Slughorn to my office immediately, please."

"Yes ma'am." With a second loud crack she disappeared. She looked between Neville and Hagrid. They were all thinking the same thing, should they bring Harry into this. He had already been informed his eldest son had been attacked and nearly killed but they weren't sure if he had got the message because he was, well they didn't know where he was.

"We ought ter bring him in, headmistress." Hagrid said gruffly. "It can't 'urt." Minerva McGonagall nodded and walked over to the fireplace. She took some floo powder and knelt down by the grate.

"Head Auror office, Ministry of Magic." She dropped the powder and stuck her head in the fire place. Her head spun and the flames tickled her neck. When it had stopped she was disorientated, Professor McGonagall had never actually done this before.

She looked up at the office was a mess of papers. There were memos scattered everywhere. A map on the wall had multi-coloured dots flashing and moving. Photos of dark wizards on the run were plastered on the walls. There were some newspaper cuttings detailing his and his wives successes. His desk had lots of moving photos. There was one of all the Potter-Weasley family (with Teddy Lupin and Dora Tonks). There were some from Hogwarts of Harry, Ron and Hermione, with the occasional appearance of Neville, Ginny and Luna. There was one of the original order of the phoenix, of his parents and the marauders at Hogwarts. And of course many of his children and his wife Ginny. At this desk sat a man with untidy black hair and green eyes. These eyes were framed by glasses and were scanning a note in horror. She recognised the note it was the one she had sent him last night, he must have only just got back.

"Harry." Harry Potter, the-boy-who-lived, defeater of Voldermort twice etc., jumped. He glanced wildly around the office and spotted his old Transfiguration Professor's head.

"Oh, Minerva! Phew, you frightened me."

"Good to see I haven't lost my touch." Harry chuckled and then went serious.

"Minerva, what-?"

"Come to my office, I have called the heads of house and Hagrid." she withdrew her head from the fire and straightened up. She was glad to see the other Heads of house. They all looked serious and business like. Harry appeared out of the fire looking tired, harassed and worried. They were all worried. Hogwarts had not been attacked in 19 years since the fateful battle that ended the war. All of them had been there and had fought. Professor McGonagall did not trust anyone more than the people she had gathered in the room.

"Well?" Harry said impatiently. They all looked between them and then Neville took the job as narrator.

"James was with a first year student named Caly Hautly, she's a muggle born. She missed the boats and James missed the carriages or something like that. They began walking up to Hogwarts together. Caly noticed there was someone walking in the shadows of the forest. They jumped onto Caly at the front steps. She was knocked into the stairs, on top of James. They both hit there heads, James doesn't really remember what happened next but Caly does. The man wanted something, she doesn't know what. He was torturing her."

"With the cruciartus curse?"

"No I don't think so, she just said he was using his wand to hurt her. Anyway he then said he was going to kill her and James. He said that although she didn't know who he was that James did. However James didn't recognise him. Caly hit the man on the head with James' foot. She pulled him up, stamped on the mans wand, we have it here, and ran into the castle. She was sorted into Gryffindor and then she collapsed when she sat at the table except she doesn't remember that yet."

Harry sat down in one of the chairs and held his head in his hands. Why his children? It was clear that they couldn't stay out of trouble. He hadn't minded James' pranks after all he was related to James Potter Sr, Fred I and II and George Weasley, someone was bound to end up pranking but this was different. Harry didn't want his children's years at Hogwarts to be like his. Then again it wasn't James' fault. He hadn't been the target of the attack.

"You found the wand."

"Yes it's here." Minerva pulled it out of a drawer in her desk. Harry had to admit that standing on the wand had been a smart thing to do. Even if the man had taken it with him Harry knew it would be very temperamental and dangerous, Harry had experienced that in his second year. Harry took the wand and held it. The phoenix tail feather was poking out of both ends, it was made of yew. Harry felt his blood run cold. The wand felt horribly familiar. He held it together and asked the room.

"How long is this?"

"13 and a half inches." Hagrid replied promptly. "Why?" Harry couldn't answer he was frozen from fear. He was holding a wand that had killed and tortured. A wand that had torn lives apart.

"Harry what is it?" Neville asked very concerned.

"What I am about to tell you may never leave this room. I am not going to tell my wife or Ron and Hermione and I would like you to do likewise. We must keep this amongst ourselves. We must be the very inner circle." Everyone nodded and held their breaths.

"This." said Harry, holding a piece in each hand. "is Voldermort's wand."

There was complete silence in the office. Nothing moved, nothing breathed. Then there was an explosion of noise.

"What!"

"Harry are you insane!"

"But he can't be back!"

"That's impossible!" Harry put up his hands to stop the flow of protests.

"I know it sounds insane but it's true. Obviously I will need to double check with Ollivander but he told me himself that Voldermort's wand was 13 and a half, yew and contained a phoenix tail feather. He also told me that no two wands are the same. This ,therefore, by default must be Voldermort's wand."

"But-"

"No listen to me. In his last year Voldermort was seeking a wand to conquer me. He sort out the most powerful wand of all, the elder wand. A wand presumed to be fictious, a children's tale. It is one of the Hallows. It's complicated but all the Hallows are real. I know, I have held them all at least once. Remember the final battle, remember what I said to Voldermort. The wand must be conquered. Voldermort wasn't the true owner because he never conquered any of the previous owners."

"So if he was carrying around and killing with the elder wand what did he do with the first one?"

"Exactly, one of his death eaters must have taken it. Maybe the man didn't know what the wand was, I don't know but trust me Voldermort is not back."

"So the person we are dealing with is a possible death eater."

"Possible."

"So what do we do now?"

"We need to find out how they got in. Hogwarts must be defended. He could very well come back for James and…er…Caly, that's it."

"Would you like to talk to them?"

"No I think Daffy would kill me. It seems her aunt passed down all the times her rules were broken because of me. I think it would be best to try and work out how they got in. It was obviously via the forest, it has happened before. I never found out how Barty Crouch Sr got in." He mused for a moment. "Hagrid how good are your relations with the talking creatures in forest; centaurs and the Acromantula."

"Good since the war."

"Okay can you ask them if they saw a human in the forest yesterday, I think it's best you did it, especially Aragog's people."

Just then a silvery frog came hopping to him. 'Another minor break out of Azkaban. Please set up immediate taskforce. No high security/death eater escapees.' Harry sighed. However horrible the Dementors were they had done a very good job of guarding Azkaban. The looks on the Professors' faces mirrored his thoughts.

"Well I must go. James will be alright, though?"

"He's fine, if a little shaken. He's been out of bed for an hour."

"Good tell him I'll owl him, oh and Neville can you congratulate Albus for becoming a Gryffindor and tell him there really wasn't anything to worry about." He walked to the fireplace pulled out a pinch of floo powder said Auror office and left in burst of bright green flames.


	7. First Day

First Day

Caly was late. She had her schedule, it had been delivered to her in the Hospital wing where Madame Pomfrey had insisted on keeping her till five minutes after the bell had gone. She was late for Transfiguration, which was taught by a Professor Hardingly. She was sure she would have been later but most of the portraits were helpful and then she had run into Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost and he was kindly guiding her. He kept drifting through walls and then remembering she couldn't follow would pop back. She had heard the story of his botched beheading and how he was still not allowed to join the headless hunt because of one stupid tendon, or something like that.

She bade him goodbye outside the classroom and dashed into the classroom. Professor was in the middle of a speech and everyone was taking notes. She hurried to the spare desk next to Scorpius and took out her parchment and quill and was about to start making notes when he finished his speech. Professor was quite tall and sharp looking, his eyes seemed to try to drill into you and find out what you were thinking. He was using this gaze on Caly but she didn't shrink or show weakness, she had learnt this from the older boys at the home. On contrary she sat forward and stared equally hard back at him. The students were looking curiously back and forth from the Professor and the new student who had been attacked as they carried out their staring match.

However it was more than a staring match, she could feel something forcing her memories of her childhood to the surface. She pushed the down and pushed the force back and back until she was seeing things that weren't hers, they involved a young man crying whilst holding a ring. She jumped, physically, in shock and pulled back gazing at her Professor in horror. Had she just seen his memories? The Professor looked away and busied himself in his desk and brought out matchsticks. He gave each child a matchstick and wrote the words on the board and told them to try and turn them into needles. It was hard. They spent an hour attempting it. In the end the people who came closest were Rose and Scorpius, both had semi-changed their matchsticks. Roses looked like a matchstick needle, meaning it was pointy, thin and had the hole at the end but was still wood and had the red bit at the end. Scorpius on the other hand had turned his into the right metal but it still had the shape of a matchstick. Professor Hardingly, however, was very pleased and gave them both 5 points for Gryffindor.

The four of them went to break together. There wasn't much to do except sit in the courtyard. They hadn't been given any homework so Rose and Scorpius discussed the lesson, whilst Caly copied Al's notes. They started off talking about nothing but by the end Caly was explaining football to Al. Caly was quite a big football fan and Al was a big Quidditch fan so they went back up to the castle arguing good naturedly about the pros of their preferred sport.

Professor Flitwick was the Charms teacher. Caly recognised him as the man who had brought in the hat and stool for her sorting. He started the class by taking the register and when he reached Caly's name he stopped to inquire how she was. He frowned at how Scorpius Malfoy was sitting next to Albus Potter when he called Scorpius' name. He positively beamed when he called Albus Potter and got quite excited again when he called out Rose Weasley.

Professor Flitwick gave them a lecture on the importance of Chrams and how it differs from other branches of magic. He then explained about the importance of pronunciation and how it could seriously effect your spell. He had quite a few funny anecdotes to tell them about this including one about how, in 5th year, his friend in his O.W.L. had 'ahh' instead of 'ahn' and had turned his and Professor Fitwick's examiners blue. Flitwick then said he had an O before starting the exam because he had been the one to change them back.

He then began explaining the spell that made things levitate. He told them all to put their wands away and repeat the words 'wingardium leviosa' for half an hour the rest of the lesson was spent practising the hand movement for the spell. Flitwick called it 'swish and flick.' Everyone felt rather foolish swishing and flicking their hands without their wands. Flitwick told them that if everyone still had perfect pronunciation and hand movement they could start with wands next lesson. Unfortunately Flitwick set them homework. It was a foot and a half on the practical uses of the levitating spell.

At lunch Rose and Scorpius and Al and Caly resumed their previous conversations. Albus couldn't understand the point of a game with one ball and you ran up and down a pitch. Caly thought Qudditch sounded very dangerous and it wasn't very good if you suffered from vertigo.

"But that's so boring." Albus said for the sixth time. Caly rolled her eyes.

"Trust me it's fun. I used to play it all the time and I watched it on the T.V.. Of course I never saw a live game but it was still good. It's much better than something like tennis or golf."

"Tennis? Golf?" Caly sighed again.

"You really don't want to know." Al shook his head and returned to his potatoes. After several minutes he ate and then asked.

"So what are the positions?"

"There's the goalie, they are the only player that can touch the ball with their hands/arms but they can only do that in their penalty area."

"Penalty area?"

"It's a box and the goals in it, I'll explain it later. Then there are the defenders, there are normally four."

"Okay and their job?"

"Defend the goal, duh, they're called defenders."

"Oh."

"Then there's midfielders and strikers."

"Midfield and strikers, how many?"

"It depends. There are 11 players per team. So you could play 4,4,2 or 4,5,1."

"That makes 10."

"You can only have one goalie so you don't count them in that."

"I still don't get it. What are cards?"

"There are red and yellow. If you get a yellow you get booked and if you get red you get sent off."

"Sent off?"

"You're sent off the pitch and you can't play anymore."

"And booking."

"The ref writes your name down."

"That's not so bad."

"Two yellows equals a red."

"Oh."

The bell went again and the four of them walked off to the front doors and towards the green houses. Al and Rose had explained that Professor Sprout was a very old Professor and had actually taught their parents. She had been in the same post as then and she was on good terms with the family. Scorpius went paler when he heard of another Professor who knew of his fathers school days.

They were sharing the lesson with the Hufflepuff's who they hadn't met before, Charms and Transfiguration was shared with the Ravenclaws. When they arrived there was an explosion of muttering. A tall blonde boy who held himself like a Lord walked forward.

"Atticus McMillan." He held his hand out to both Albus and Rose. "My father was in your parents year, they were friends."

"Oh." Albus didn't have much to say but he shook Atticus' hand, as did Rose. Atticus looked at Scorpius and Caly. He sniffed at Scorpius and said.

"You're the Malfoy boy, right."

"It's Scorpius."

"Right, how did you end up in Gryffindor."

"Umm, there was this hat and it was placed on my head and it had a little silent conversation with me and then it shouted out GRYFFINDOR!" Most of the people laughed.

"And what conversation did it have?"

"Is that really any of your business?"

"Well we are all curious about how a death eater ended up in Gryffindor." Scorpius went paler still. He looked like a ghost. His hand twitched as if to move towards his pocket but Al grabbed it and shook his head.

"You know I only found out about the houses on Saturday but one of the things said about Hufflepuffs was that they were kind, or supposed to be anyway. Maybe you are the one in the wrong house. I heard being malicious was a trait worthy of Slytherin." Everyone looked at Caly and then Atticus. Atticus' cheeks had gone very red and he did pull out his wand.

"What is going on here?" Professor Sprout had come out of the greenhouse and was surveying the scene. "Mr McMillan this is not a good way to start your Hogwarts career. 5 points from Hufflepuff, we do not point our wands at our classmates." Atticus stuffed it back inside his robes and glared at Caly who, along with Al, Rose and Scorpius, was glaring back. When they did not move Professor Sprout sighed and said "In the Greenhouses now."

They filed inside and found seats as far away from Atticus as they could find. Professor Sprout came in and faced the class.

"I have always been proud of Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. They have always been friendly, along with Ravenclaw. What I have seen is highly disappointing. I don't want to know what happened but I will tell you that unity is more important than division. If I see anyone damaging the relationship of our houses they will be in severe trouble.

Now Herbology. In these Greenhouses you will find many different plants. There are 7 different greenhouses and we work our way through them year by year. Occasionally we may step into other greenhouses but I don't tend to. None of the plants in here can cause mortal harm in their plant form but many can create poisons as potions. If you are good at Herbology it can help your potions extremely. To know the properties of the plants and how to care for them is just as important.

I have a few things I wish to show you. Does anyone have a steady hand." A couple people raised their hands and, to the surprise of her friends, Caly. "Ah Miss Hautly, recovered from Saturday."

"Yes Professor."

"Then come." She beckoned and Caly got off her stool and waked to the front. Atticus lowered his hand glowering at her. "Here." The Professor took two pods off a tray and motioned Caly to put her hand out. Caly put out her hand palm up. She placed them in her palm and told her she must guide them through the mothering plant to the soil behind.

Caly gazed at it for a moment then realised it was like a steady hand game but instead of a loop of metal she had seeds, instead of wire she had plant stems and instead of an irritating buzzing noise there were snapping jaws. She started off carefully, guiding it over the stems and through the tangle of leaves. Then Atticus coughed. It wasn't particularly loud but it startled her and she touched the pod against the stem.

A jaw clamped over Caly's hand. She saw everyone gasp and begin to panic. Professor Sprout was ushering Atticus out of the greenhouse. Caly kept quite still, not moving her hand. She looked up at the class and the approaching Professor Sprout. She had her wand out. Caly put out her other hand to stop her. She then made shushing gestures towards the rest of the class. They fell silent. Caly's left hand found the central bulb of the plant. Very gently she stroked it. The plant shivered and its jaws' grip softened. She kept on doing this until it released her hand. It's tendrils snaked around her and squeezed her and then let her go. She easily took the seeds and planted them.

The greenhouse burst into applause. Professor Sprout shook her hand several times and then told her to sit down. She then went onto explain how Caly had done what few people had done and soothed the Mortius Brigar. Caly was very pleased with herself and when a plant with curly tendrils began to snake around her she just stroked them and let them stay around her. Professor Sprout was ecstatic about it and she soon had them all trying to plant the Mortius Brigar seeds but no one else who got caught managed to get free until Caly walked over and freed them. She took extreme pleasure doing this to Atticus and by the end of the lesson she had earned fifty points for Gryffindor for her way with plants.

They spent dinner talking about Herbology.

"How did you do it?" Scorpius asked the moment they sat down.

"It was obvious."

"But I didn't know and I read the textbook cover to cover." said Rose, distressed.

"Ah, ickle Rosie found something she couldn't do." They looked up to see James. "Hey." he said sitting next to Caly on the bench. The two twins he'd been walking with sat down opposite. "Are you okay?"

"Fine. Why didn't you tell McGonagall?"

"She doesn't know about the map."

"But if you know-"

"Don't worry I'll tell my dad, he's the head auror, a dark wizard catcher, he'll know what to do."

"Okay." She looked at the twins, they both had dirty blonde hair and a far away look in their brown eyes.

"Oh, this is Lorcan and Lysander Scarmander. They're my friends, we know their mum. So what didn't Rose know."

"I got my hand caught in the Mortius Brigar but I released myself by stroking its central bulb."

"What? You can get free from it by stroking the bulb?"

"Yea, anyway Rose, what was I gonna say. Oh yeah, you need to let the plant know you're gonna do it any harm. Most people panicked when it happened then tried to free themselves. Once you struggle it doesn't believe you're harmless."

"How do you know that?" Caly went very serious.

"I've seen it with people. The younger children at my care home, some came from abusive backgrounds. They may lash out at you because you scare them but as long as you do nothing back and you soothe them they calm down. I've had plenty of practise." She stared bitterly down at her plate. There was a pause when no one could think of anything to say. Then James asked.

"What's a care home?"

"It's a place run by the council for people without family or have been taken away from their families by social services."

"Why are they taken away from their families?""'cause their parents aren't fit to take care of them, 'cause they're on drugs or they're in jail or they abuse them." There was a pause. "Physically or sexually." There was a very grim silence after these words. Then everyone busied themselves with their dinner.

They went back to common room and began the essay the Flitwick had set them. It wasn't particularly long compared to what the older students were doing. They were lucky Sprout hadn't set them any work because Flitwick's homework took ages. There weren't that many practical uses and many were similar so they had grouped them together. Caly re-wrote the essay six times before she had got it to the right length. After that they talked for a little while and then decided that they were going to head to bed. Rose told Caly that they were the only girls to be sorted into Gryffindor. Their dormitory was spacious and as Caly lay down in her four poster with the hangings drawn she felt quite content and at home at Hogwarts after just one day.


	8. Tales and Tails

Tales and Tails

Harry Potter had barely slept. He had been to Ollivander's on Monday and had found, to his horror, that his suspicions were correct and that it was Voldermort's wand. He sat in his study and thought about Tom Marvolo Riddle. An orphan boy who grew up in the muggle world. As a boy he had shown cruelty towards others and disdain for those he believed to be inferior. At Hogwarts he had been a talented, well liked by the teachers, friendless boy who gathered supporters in Slytherin. He despised muggles and muggle borns. He saw death as a weakness from the age of 11. He murdered his father and grandparents when he was 16 and framed his uncle. He wanted power. Then there was his adult life. He had-

"Daddy." Harry jumped and stowed the wand away in one of the drawers of his desk and tapped it with his wand. He spun around on his chair, it was a muggle computer chair, wizards had yet to discover the benefit of a chair with wheels. In the door was a bleary eyed Lily.

"Lily Luna Potter what are you doing up?"

"I was asleep but I had a nightmare."

"Oh." Harry fought back memories of the nightmares he'd had. "Come here." Lily climbed onto her father's lap. She would have been a reincarnation of Lily Evans but she had hazel eyes instead of green.

"So what was this nightmare about then?"

"I was here and then I came downstairs and you were all…dead." Lily's voice cracked and she began to cry. She buried her head in her father's shoulder. He held very tightly and let her cry. Death was a very touchy subject in all their families houses, everyone had lost someone. Harry had lost his parents and godfather, Ginny and the rest of the Weasley's had lost Fred, a brother and son and Teddy/Dora had lost their parents/daughter and son-in-law and their grandfather/husband respectively. Lily always got upset about things like this.

"Lily it's okay we're not dieing, we're not going anywhere." Harry had decided against telling her about James' attack.

"Why do you have a dangerous job, daddy?"

"'cause it's the only thing I'm any good at."

"You're a good father." Harry smiled

"Well unfortunately that doesn't feed you."

"But why?"

"You sound so much like your mother when I told her."

"What did she do? Please tell me."

"Well okay."

_It was the end of August and Harry was once more staying with the Weasley's. He and Ginny had got back together, and provided they stayed together through a whole year apart, they were going to be in their own place this time next year. He was sitting on her bed trying to stir up the courage to tell her he was going to become an auror._

"_Harry."_

_"Yes Ginny?"_

_"Are you going to tell me this news or not."_

_"Oh yeah. Well. I'mgonnabeanauror."_

"_What?"_

_"I'm-going-to-be-an-auror." He closed his eyes and waited for the explosion. After a minute of waiting he cautiously opened one eye. He couldn't see properly so he opened the other. The sight he saw made him want to be sick. Ginny was sobbing quietly into her hands. Harry would definitely had preferred the explosion. He moved over and slipped an arm around her, pulling her closely to him. She wrapped her arms around him and cried._

"_Harry dinner's-" Hermione half opened the door but saw Ginny mouthed 'sorry' then backed out. This, however, had brought Ginny out of her weeping. She looked up at him._

"_Why?"_

_"Because Kingsley said it was the best job for me and it's the only one he'd give me without returning for my N.E.W.T.s. Ron's joining too.""That doesn't make me feel better."_

"_Didn't think it would. But Ginny I will be careful, I promise. I have never been happier than I am now. I have you and Ron and Hermione and you family. I will also be there for Teddy. I am gonna give him something close to a father. I feel it's the least I can do for him and the rest of the marauders, barring Wormtail of course. You and me we've got a shot at the future, I'm not about to throw it away." Ginny smiled and nodded. They kissed and then Harry said "We had better get to dinner and you need to wash your face or I'll have lots of over protective brothers hexing me." She laughed._

Lily was silent and then said

"Did mummy really cry?"

"Promise you won't tell her I said this?"

"Yes."

"Then yes, she was very upset. But Lily no one is going to die and I am very careful. I have so much to live for. I have you and your brothers, your mother, Teddy and all the Weasley family." He stroked her hair back. "Besides, Lils, it was just a nightmare. Nightmares can only hurt you if you worry about them."

"Okay." She slid off her father's lap. "Will you be home tomorrow?"

"No, I have somewhere I need to be."

"Oh."

"You'll find something to do. If you can't meet up with Hugo why don't you….er….write to Al." Lily's face lit up.

"Yeah, I'll do that." She ran out of the room and up to her room. Harry smiled and rubbed his scar. Everything was going to be fine, no one was dieing under his watch.

Caly groaned as she sat up. She could hear Rose moving around. She rolled over and opened the hangings. Rose was turning the contents of the room upside down for a sock. She sat up and got out of bed. Her things were exactly where she left them last night and she dressed quickly. By the time she had finished tying her hair back in a ponytail Rose had found another pair of socks and the dormitory was a mess.

They met Scorpius and Al in the common room and headed down to breakfast. Today they had History of Magic, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Potions. According to all their parents History of Magic was the most boring subject taught at Hogwarts. As far as Caly could work out, this ghost didn't know his class and he didn't seem to really notice he was dead. Her friends had endless tales of boredom to regale her with and for the first time she found herself enjoying breakfast. The whole meal was fun until the owls came.

SWOOSH! Hundreds of owls came flying into the great hall. Caly jumped and dropped her toast and split her juice everywhere. By the time she had cleared up the owls were all circling the tables, finding their owners and dropping letters and parcels off and then flying off. Three owls came flying towards the four of them. Two landed in front of Al and Rose whilst Scorpius' dropped his letter and flew off. Caly looked curiously at his letter. It was smoking and red. He was paler than ever and all of Gryffindor table was looking sympathetically at him. He gritted his teeth and opened it.

"SCORPIUS HYPERON MALFOY!" A man's voice filled the hall and everyone turned to face them. "YOU HAVE DESTROYED THE FRAGILE REPUTATION THAT THE MALFOY HAS SALVAGED! YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO THE NAME MALFOY! I HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE ASHAMED IN MY LIFE! DON'T BOTHER COMING HOME AT CHRISTMAS YOU AREN'T WELCOME!" Silence filled the hall. Everyone was gazing at Scorpius sadly, Caly could see James looking a little guilty down the table where he was sitting with the dreamy twins. Most people had been prejudiced against him, they were infamous but seeing the first year who was as red as the letter most felt sorry for him.

"What was that?" Caly whispered to Al.

"Howler. Worst letter a Hogwarts student can receive."

However something even stranger happened that distracted everyone from Scorpius' howler. In through the windows that the owls came through flew a beautiful red bird. Professor McGonagall half rose from her seat in shock. All the staff, it seemed, were frozen in shock. The bird looked like a phoenix but they weren't real, or were they?

"Is that a-"

"Yeah that's a phoenix." It circled the hall four times and then descended towards the Gryffindor table. It was coming closer to them and Caly was sure it was going to Al. After all Al was famous, right. Her heart seemed to stop when it landed in front of her. The entire hall was gazing at her. She extended a shaking hand and gently stroked the phoenix. It bowed its head and ruffled its plumage. It took off and flew once around her head. As it did so it dropped a single feather. Caly picked it up and it caught fire. She didn't drop it, though, she just kept holding it. A ring of flames rose from the tail feather and down her hand till her wrist. It burned there for a minute and in that minute she saw all the birds memories. She saw everything and she knew they were linked. She looked back down at her wrist and saw the mark was all but invisible. She looked the phoenix straight in the eye as she tied the tail feather around her other wrist.

"Fawkes."


	9. Boredom, Failure, Success

Boredom, Failure and Success

Caly discovered that History of Magic was just as boring as they had all said and Caly was pretty sure she would have fallen asleep had her mind not been so busy thinking over breakfast. The main thing going through her brain was what the hell? Why the hell had Fawkes decided that she would be his next owner? She knew he had been ownerless for 20 years after Professor Dumbledore, head master of Hogwarts, had died. She had seen 20 years of loneliness and lament. She had seen a bird mourning the loss of someone so close to them. But she had also seen his previous owners. Some had been kind others cruel but Albus Dumbledore was Fawkes' favourite. Albus, she glanced at Al. Was he named after the Professor?

She had found it bad enough that people had stared at her because she had been attacked on the first day. Or because she was with the descendants of famous and infamous people so they stared at that too, but now everyone knew that a phoenix had bonded with her. She fiddled with the feather she had tied around her wrist. She wasn't really sure why she'd tied to tail feather to her wrist, it had just seemed to be the right thing to do at the time. She didn't understand.

The rest of history of magic passed slowly. Rose was the only person who was taking notes, the rest of the class was staring at Binns in a far away way or fast asleep. Scorpius and Al were playing hangman on a scrap of parchment. From what she could gleam from Rose's notes Professor Binns was talking about goblin revolts in the 11th century. Caly shifted in her seat and tried to keep her eyes open. She didn't think she had ever been this bored in her life. She had never thought she could be this bored. Surely the teacher had noticed he had only one person in his class listening to him.

It was a huge relief to leave his class and go to break. Caly was getting as many stares as her friends. They eventually managed to get Rose to copy her notes onto three other pieces of paper. It had taken a lot of begging but they had somehow managed it. Rose tutted that they would never learn but they just told her it would only be for history of magic. She was reassured that defence against the dark arts would be taught by Professor Longbottom, her head of house she'd met on Sunday who had seemed very kindly. Scorpius wasn't so thrilled when he found out Professor Longbottom was a good friend of Al and Rose's parents and they'd been in the same year in school.

They lined up outside the classroom and were joined by the Hufflepuffs. Caly groaned as she saw Atticus McMillan and his group of friends. She shot him a glare and then turned her back on him.

"How many lessons do we have with the Hufflepuffs?"

"Quite a few; Herbology, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Potions."

"Great."

"What? Oh, Atticus."

"Yeah. I've been here four days and I already have an enemy."

"I think we all do." They turned round and saw Atticus glaring at them.

"Wonder why he hates us all?" Scorpius said. "I got the impression he wanted to impress you and Rose.""Yes but then he showed up by you and Caly."

"Do you think he deliberately coughed to sabotage you?" Al wondered.

"Yes." Caly said darkly. "I definitely think he would sink so low."

"Well we had better best him in every test." When Scorpius said this Al and Rose burst into uncontrollable laughter. Scorpius raised an eyebrow at Caly who just shrugged, she couldn't see what was so funny.

The door of the classroom opened and Professor Longbottom walked out, Al and Rose immediately fought their laughter and to a certain extent won. Professor Longbottom frowned at them and then beckoned them inside. They sat down at the very back of the class, Rose wanted to sit at the front but seeing as McMillan was there Caly refused. Professor Longbottom closed the door and strode across to the front of the class to face them. He surveyed them all once then began talking.

"As you heard before the feast I taught Herbology here for five years but Professor Sprout wanted to come out of retirement and Professor Dakton wanted to go into it so I took up this post. The first thing I want to tell you is that the dark arts are not as clear cut as one would think. The first thing I want you to understand is that every person has the potential to be a dark wizard. Anyone could turn to the dark arts. But the same time anyone can turn against the dark arts. As you get older your actions may become less clear cut. There is no line that divides good from evil." He let these words sink into the class. Caly glanced at Scorpius with a raised eyebrow. He mirrored her look back. "The second thing I want to tell you is that I am a hands on teacher. Maybe that's because Herbology is a hands on subject but also it is probably the best way to learn defence. This year I will some basic practical defence and also some creatures you wouldn't like to cross."

A general mutter of excitement rippled through the class. Al looked really excited. He was grinning like a two year old on Christmas and it was clear he was really looking forward to this lesson. Caly, too, felt excited. They were learning magic that had a proper use. If she could learn this she might be better prepared if she was ever attacked again.

"Alright class." Professor Longbottom had let them mutter for a minute then had decided to come back into control. "I will randomly partner you up." He began reading names of a list. Eventually there was "Miss Weasley and Mr Malfoy." They grinned at each other. "Mr Potter and Mr McMillan." Al scowled and grabbed his bag and dumped himself next to Atticus. "Miss Hautly and Mr Finch-Fletchly." A small Hufflepuff boy came and sat down in Scorpius' old seat. He gave her a smile and she smiled back.

"Right now I am going to teach you the disarming spell. Everyone say after me 'Expelliarmus'."

"Expelliarmus." chorused the class.

"Good now I want the person on my right so your left to go first." Finch-Fletchly turned and pointed his wand at her. "On the count of three. Watch out for flying wands. 1..2..3!"

"EXPELLIARMUS!" half the class shouted. Caly felt her wand twitch in her hand but nothing else. Scorpius' wand had hit Atticus square in the jaw when Rose had disarmed him which the whole class found really funny. The fact that Atticus had been unable to disarm Al made it even funnier.

"Okay." said Professor Longbottom loudly. "I want those who lost their wands to come collect them." He waved his wand and four wands appeared on his desk. Scorpius quickly went to pick his up and then went back to Rose.

"Right well done those four. Now can the other half please try." Caly gripped her wand and faced the Finch-Fletchly boy. "1..2..3!"

"EXPELLIARMUS!" she yell along with the other half of the class. Finch-Fletchly's wand did nothing. Atticus' wand, however, spun out of the open window. Everyone cracked up, again.

"Oops." Professor Longbottom said crossing to the window. "I forgot to close it." He magiced Atticus' wand back and handed it to him. "All right we go again."

The rest of the class proceeded in the same way. On the couple of goes after that only Rose, Scorpius, Al and three people Caly didn't know managed to disarm their partners. In fact Professor Longbottoms method of teaching was so good that, by the end of the lesson, everyone apart from Caly could disarm their partner. Caly felt very dejected by this and it didn't help that Atticus was laughing at her.

"Don't mind him." Caly glanced at her partner as they were packing away at the end of the lesson. "He's just sore after yesterday. He coughed to try and get you hand ripped up but instead you just do something even better and you made him look like a fool. He's got a little bunch of admirers but the rest of us first years just want his head deflated, quickly."

"Er, thanks…"

"Peter."

"Caly."

"I know who you are. You're quite famous round the school."

"Oh, anyway, thanks Peter."

"No problem. See you in Potions." He waved and walked out with some other Hufflepuffs.

"God I hate McMillan." It was the first thing that was said when the four got together. Al was furious and he was glaring daggers at Atticus who was accompanied by another boy who looked just as stuck up.

"Yeah apparently most of the Hufflepuffs don't like him." Al, Rose and Scorpius looked at her.

"How do you know that?"

"I was talking to Peter."

"Whose Peter?"

"The boy I was paired with, anyway, he said Atticus has a little bunch of admirers but apart from that the rest of the first years think he's really stuck up."

"Well they're not wrong there."

"Yeah he definitely needs to be taken down a notch."

"How?" asked Caly.

"Easy." Al said glancing at Rose who groaned.

"Oh no Al, please, it's only our second day."

"Yeah which is why we need to do something." Caly glanced at Scorpius who just shrugged.

"Er, someone care to fill us in."

"Oh well there's sort of a pranking tradition in our family."

"Of course the Weasley twins." said Scorpius.

"Yeah and the Marauders."

"I haven't heard of them."

"Yeah they're kinda old."

"Wait what? I still don't understand."

"Okay this is kind of complicated but still. Erm. Okay, the first set of great pranksters were the Marauders- Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. They're all dead, now. They're Hogwarts legends. What most people don't know is who they were. Moony was Remus Lupin, Wormtail Peter Pettigrew, Padfoot was Sirius Black and Prongs was James Potter."

"So you're related."

"Yeah James Potter was my grandfather. So like I was saying my family has this whole pranking thing. Teddy, you saw him on the platform, Moony was his dad and he's practically family. Sirius was my dads godfather and obviously Prongs was my grandfather. Then a generation later came the Weasley twins. Well actually there's only one now. Fred died in the war."

"War?"

"Er, later. Anyway they were just as successful, they actually set up a jokeshop so you can pull pranks on people. It's so cool."

"And this generation?"

"There's Fred II and his three friends Nick, Maise and Kay and James and his friend Colin."

"So you want to prank Atticus?" Caly asked uncertainly. Scorpius, on the other hand, burst out laughing.

"That's brilliant. We need to do that."

"I don't know it could get us into loads of trouble."

"Oh lighten up." said Al as they sat at the Gryffindor table. "We may get caught but it'll give everyone a good laugh."

"Speaking of laughing." Scorpius interjected "What was so funny about what I said earlier."

"What?"

"I said we had to beat Atticus in everything and then you two went into hysterics."

"Oh." Al and Rose shared a glance.

"Well when we were on the platform my dad told me to do exactly the same thing….to you." Rose looked uncertainly at Scorpius, whilst Caly snorted into her food. After a moment he grinned and said

"I'd like to see you try Miss Weasley."

"Is that a challenge?"

"I believe it is."

"Very well challenge accepted." They shook hands over the table whilst Al and Caly rolled their eyes at each other.

Professor Slughorn was the their potions master, which they unfortunately had to take with the Hufflepuffs, and he was another old professor. However unlike Flitwick Slughorn did not look the least bit frail. Quite the contrary he was so fat Caly reckoned he was borderline on obese. According to all her friends parents Slughorn was one to pick favourites and play them. He even had a club for exceptional and/or well connected students.

Once again the foursome sat at the back of the class, as far away from McMillan as possible. They'd set up their cauldrons and were eagerly awaiting Slughorns instructions. However Slughorn seemed more intent on studying the class. Occasionally he would nod at student or give them a small cheery smile. He passed over them relatively quickly until he reached their back bench. Word had got round that the Malfoy boy was friends with the latest Potter-Weasley children but here it was in flesh. He sat next to Al and Caly in stark contrast to where his father would have sat.

He stared at their bench for a good three minutes until he seemingly wrenched himself out of a trance.

"Now I could give you a lecture on the usefulness of potions but I think it's pretty obvious, besides that would be no fun." A few small smiles were coming onto their faces as they saw where this was going. "Therefore this lesson will be solely practical. Now because of your new timetables your lessons are much longer so I'll set something slightly harder. I think the simple burn cure on page 20 will do. Well what are you waiting for? Off you go."

Caly flipped to page 20 and read the instructions briefly, it didn't look too bad. Scorpius dumped the ingredients on their desk.

"I got you some, too."

"Cheers."

Caly then realised she couldn't start a fire, she didn't know how. Time to improvise. She took a quill and stuck the end in Scorpius' flames."What the-" Scorpius stared as she transferred the flame to the bottom of her cauldron and the blew out the smoking end of the quill.

"Sorry."

"No problem."

Making the potion was ridiculously easy. She looked around saw that no one, not even Rose or Scorpius, had got as far as her. This made her feel much better. She stirred it once more and then tipped in the final ingredients. A couple more stirs and it was ready. She scooped some into a phial, labelled it and walked up to Slughorn. She looked at the clock as she walked to the front of the classroom. It had taken her 25 minutes to complete a potion that some people were only on the second step of.

"Professor?"

"Yes my dear."

"I've finished." Slughorn dropped the paper he was holding and stared at her amazed. He looked at a wrist watch that was nearly buried in fat, then back at her in amazement.

"My dear, are you sure?"

"Yes, sir."

"And does it work?"

"Only one way to find out." She stuck her finger into the flame before Slughorn could stop her. The class, which had been half watching her, were now gawping at her. She counted to ten and then pulled it out. Sure enough there was a small burn. She put a couple of drops on and felt her eyes go wide as the burn disappeared instantly. Then she heard the dungeon started to applaud, Slughorn joined them and gave Caly 10 points for Gryffindor. Caly walked back to her seat as everyone carried on. She chewed her lip wondering what to do next. Since Slughorn had a phial of her potion for marking she emptied her cauldron and then sat there staring at the text.

The more Caly stared at the method the more she had a niggling feeling there was something wrong. She bit her lip wondering whether to act on this…instinct. Deciding she'd rather do that then sit around for over an hour, besides what harm could it do? She grabbed parchment, ink and her burnt 'potions' quill. She copied out the method and carefully amended the ingredients. She was going to get the juice out another, more effective way which meant you'd need less, in theory.

Caly had just finished copying out a legible version of her method when Slughorn came to her cauldron. Caly had spent the rest of the lesson, slowly and methodically working out the 'kinks' she could see in the method. Slughorn frowned at her when he saw that she had re-made her perfect solution.

"Why did you redo it?"

"I did it my way."

"Your way?"

"I felt there were some problems so I re-wrote the method." She handed him the two pieces of paper.

"Well we had better test it, but you won't be the subject Miss Hautly. Gather round everyone." Everyone crowded around and watched as Horace first transfigured as piece of left over ingredient into a live finger. Several Hufflepuff girls squealed but Slughorn ignored them. He burnt the finger to the same extent that Caly had and then added the same amount of potion. The effect was instantaneous, again. Once again the dungeon rang with applause. Slughorn awarded her 25 points copied her notes and said she was a great potioneer. Caly felt relieved that there were two things she could actually do at Hogwarts.


	10. History Isn't Always Boring

History Isn't Always Boring

When they were back in the common room Caly had made up her mind. She wanted to know the whole story. She wanted to know exactly why Al, Rose and Scorpius were famous and she wanted to know it today. She was tired of not understanding the stares that they got, or in Scorpius' case glares. The question was how to broach the subject tactfully. They did their homework in the library because Al had muttered something about annoying class mates. It then struck Caly she didn't know anyone else in her house. She'd heard their names on the register but she didn't know who they were. The only other person she knew was Peter Finch-Fletchly and Atticus McMillan, but Caly didn't count the last one.

"ALBUS!" The excited shout deafened them the moment they re-entered the common room. A small boy with mousey hair ran up to him.

"We've never been properly introduced. My name is Martin Creevy, we met at the memorial service."

"Yeah." Al said uncomfortably "Your brother is my brother's best mate." Martin's face fell slightly at the fact Al knew his brother but he perked up immediately.

"Would you like to come and sit with me, Al, your cousin is welcome too. My dad speaks about your parents all the time. All about Dumbledore's army and everything."

"Oi, Martin!" Another shout came up but this was angry. "Leave Al alone." A boy who looked like Martin but bigger came striding over "How you doing?"

"Fine."

"If he bugs you just tell me."

"Er, yeah I will." The boy turned to go but then Al shouted. "Hey! Why haven't you pranked yet?" The boy tapped his nose and returned to his seat by James. "That was Colin, I was telling you about him earlier." Caly and Scorpius nodded. Martin had scurried off, clearly intimidated by his older brother. Caly opened her mouth to speak but then a pair of twins wondered over. They were very different from Lorcan and Lysander but still seemed to be in perfect sync with each other.

"Hey-"

"Al." They said.

"Hi, Kyle, Finn."

"To bad we-"

"Don't share a dorm." They spoke perfectly with each other and it confused her.

"Yeah, too bad." Al echoed.

"We'll be-"

"Seeing you-"

"Then-"

"Very soon." And then they left. Once they left they revealed another boy who had been standing behind them.

"Declan!" Rose and Al exclaimed.

"Hey guys. Hogwarts is so cool isn't it."

"Yeah." They stood in awkward silence till Declan said.

"I'd better go find the twins." And he left too. They wended their way over to some armchairs without anymore interruptions and flopped into them.

"Was Martin the annoying class mate you referred to earlier?" asked Rose.

"Yeah. He's way too enthusiastic."

"So who exactly were those people?" Caly asked, once again feeling left out by the wizarding world.

"All children of our parents old friends." said Rose casually.

"Martin and his older brother Colin our the sons of Denis Creevy, he married a muggle called Mary I think."

"Marie." corrected Rose.

"Yeah that's right. Apparently Denis' older brother Colin, hence Colins name, idolised my dad at school. Kyle and Finn are Dean Thomas' sons."

"He wrote our History of Magic textbook." Interjected Rose.

"Thanks, Rose. He shared a dorm with mine and Rose's dads, as did Declan's dad Seamus Finnigan. Thant's how we know them."

"And over there are the rest of the first years." said Scorpius pointing to a huddle.

"The kid with brown curly hair is Daniel Morden and the one with brown hair and blue eyes is Michael Stone, they're both muggle born and share our dorm. The pale boy is Jean-Paul Blanc. He's French and doesn't speak much English, he share's our dorm too. We don't know anything about his parents. "

"So that." Scorpius finished. "Is Philip East." He pointed to last boy in the huddle.

"He's muggle born, too." Al added. "Declan mentioned him earlier. Poor boy, he ends up with a roomful of nutters. But I like our dorm, no one stares." Scorpius nodded in agreement. Caly took a deep breath and then asked the big question.

"Why does everyone stare at you?" There was a pause when Rose, Al and Scorpius all looked at each other.

"It's kind of a long story." said Scorpius finally.

"Yeah really long." Rose said

"But I want to know, I kinda need to know if I'm gonna be friends with you guys."

"She as a point." Al said seriously. He shifted to face Caly. "This is going to be one hell of a tale." He took a deep breathe and collected his thoughts. "It all starts, I guess, with the Gaunts and the Riddles in Little Hangleton. Now the Gaunts were a pure bloodist, muggle hating family. They were a really old family descendent from Salazar Slytherin himself and proud of it. However the family squandered their money and by the time of the last generation of Gaunts they were living in poverty. Mavolo Gaunt was the father and he had a son Morphin and a daughter Merope. Now the Riddle family were rich muggles. Tom Riddle Snr.'s father was the squire of the village."

"How come he was Tom Riddle Snr. if he didn't have children?"

"'Cause he didn't have a kid yet and it's easier to refer to him as Tome Riddle Snr. Now don't interrupt it's long enough as it is. Where was I, oh right yeah, Merope had fallen in love with Riddle Snr. but of course he didn't know she existed and her family knew nothing of this. Now at one point Morphin attacked Tom Snr. and he was summoned to a hearing but he didn't go quietly, him and his father put up a fight and they were both tried and sent to Azkaban. Azkaban is the wizard prison." Albus added quickly, correctly guessing Caly's next question. "This left Merope alone in the house and one day she and Tom Snr ran off together. We don't know how but my dad reckons she used a love potion. When her dad was released from Azkaban he returned to find his daughter gone, run off with the squires, muggle son. He died shortly after. Nothing is known after that for a while but then Merope turns up penniless in London and Tom Snr is back in his house with his parents talking about enchantments and what not."

"Why?"

"Well, this is just a guess, my dad thinks that Merope, for some reason, stopped giving the potion, maybe because she thought he might actually love her by now but most probably she expected him to stay for the baby."

"Baby?"

"Yeah she was pregnant but he didn't stay he left and didn't give her a second thought. Now Merope had only one thing of value and that was an old locket, a family heirloom that was supposedly Slytherin's. She took it to a shop for artefact, Borgin and Burkes, and tried to sell it to them. At first Burke didn't really believe it was Slytherin's but he checked and it was. This made it near priceless but instead he gave her 10 galleons." Caly's mouth dropped open.

"Heartless man."

"Too right. Anyway Merope had the baby had a muggle orphanage and named the baby Tom Marvolo Riddle, she dies pretty soon after that so they kept the baby. Fast forward 11 years and Dumbledore comes to give Tom his Hogwarts letter. He finds out that Tom is a quiet, strange friendless boy who frightens the other children. He has much more control over his abilities than most young wizards and already uses it to hurt others. He takes trophies from those that he's victimised and he can talk to snakes. He doesn't think his mother is a witch because she succumbed to death." Al paused and looked very seriously at Caly. "That might seem irrelevant but trust me it'll come back. He came to Hogwarts and he was sorted into Slytherin, he was a quiet, talented, good looking boy. In Slytherin house he gathered followers of sorts and they became the first of the Death Eaters."

"The what?"

"You'll understand later. In his fifth year at Hogwarts he was a prefect and he received the award for special services to the school for 'catching' the person who opened the Chamber of Secrets."

"The Chamber of what? And what do you mean by 'catching'?"

"You'll understand later." Caly rolled her eyes. "Around the time of his sixth year he had searched all the school records and could find no trace of a Tom Riddle and it was then, my father thinks, he dropped the name Tom Riddle and assumed the title Lord Voldermort." He paused again and looked at Caly.

"Am I supposed to react to that?"

"Oh right sorry. However he did find out about the Gaunts and so he went to the old house. He met Morphin and from him learnt about the Riddles. He went over to their manor house and murdered his father and grandparents, he modified his uncles memory so it looked like he did it and stole another old heirloom, a ring with the Peverll coat of arms." Caly sat stunned. She couldn't speak so Al continued. "He returned to Hogwarts and then he asked Professor Slughorn about horcruxes."

"About what?"

"Just wait a second. Professor Slughorn is the type that hugely favours students, he does this because they have talent, ambition or are well connected. You'll see in a couple of lessons. Tom was one of his favourite students which is why Tom asked him, unfortunately Slughorn answered him. He told Tom that a horcrux is when a wizard has taken a piece of their soul and concealed it in an object. One does this by killing, killing is an act against nature and therefore rips the soul in two. The wizard then contains it in an object. This way they cannot truly die if something happens to them because a part of their soul lives on. Riddle thought making seven would make him stronger, he wanted to make seven Horcruxes."

"Christ." Caly said softly. The others gave her curious expressions. "Muggle expression."

"Anyways, after Hogwarts Riddle went to work at Borgin and Burkes. He helped them acquire objects to sell. This wasn't his first choice job, he wanted to teach at Hogwarts but Dippet, the Headmaster at the time, said he was too young at 18 and should come back in a year or two. After a while at working at Borgin and Burkes he came across Hebzibah Smith. She was a descendent of Hufflepuff and she had a cup that was Hufflepuffs and she had the locket that was his mothers. Some time after he discovered this Hebzibah was found dead and the cup and the locket gone. Their house elf Hockey was blamed because she remembered putting something in the tea that wasn't sugar but Riddle had modified her memory. I can't remember how long after that he went back to Hogwarts and reapplied for the defence against the dark arts job but Dumbledore turned him down. Now the timeline from here on is not so good but I know he started taking over, gathering followers; mainly Slytherins. People who wanted power came to him, he promised dementors and werewolves prey and the giants a place in society, so to speak.

Now I kind of need to tell another story but I'll keep this short. It's the story of the grandparents I never met. Lily Evans, as she was then, was muggle born and didn't know anything about magic until she met Severus Snape. He told her all about magic, they were the same age and they became best friends but from that moment on Snape loved Lily. They went to Hogwarts and Lily was in Gryffindor and Snape was in Slytherin but they were still friends. Now my granddad James Potter had a group of friends, I told you about, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. James loved Lily from the moment he saw her too but she thought he was an arrogant git, and he was a little bit. James hated Snape. Also James was this popular talented Quidditch star everyone loved. Remus was a werewolf so the planted the whomping willow over a secret passage to the shrieking shack so he could transform there. He didn't tell James, Sirius or Peter though but James and Sirius figured it out for themselves, as did Snape. Instead of ditching him as a friend they became animagi because werewolves are only a danger to humans."

"Ani-what?"

"Animagi are wizards who can turn into animals."

"Wicked."

"Yeah, they managed it in fifth year. James became a stag, Sirius a dog and Peter a rat. In fifth year, one time when James and Sirius were picking on Snape when Lily came to his rescue but he called he a mudblood, they were never friends again. By seventh year James was a little less arrogant and he and Lily went out. However Voldermort, Riddle, whatever you want to call him, was taking over everywhere. James, Lily, Sirius, Remus and Peter joined the Order of the Phoenix. It was the anti-Voldermort movement set up by Dumbledore. Snape was a death eater but one day he over heard an old Professor here called Tralawney giving a prophecy. It said that the one who could destroy Voldermort was nearly about to be born, he'd be born to parents who had evaded Voldermort three times. It also said that Riddle would mark him as his equal and he'd have powers that Voldermort didn't but Snape didn't hear that bit because he'd run off to tell Riddle that. Now the prophecy referred to two people; my dad and Professor Longbottom. His parents were the aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom. Riddle decided however to go after my dad; Harry Potter. When Snape found out that Voldermort was hunting Lily's son he switched sides and became a spy for Dumbledore. However the order had a rat too, someone close to the Potters. They were placed under the fidelius charm. It's basically the location of their house was stored inside the secret keeper, so you could only go in/see it if the secret keeper told you. They selected Sirius and then less than a week after they'd gone into hiding Riddle turned up. He killed James and told Lily he'd let her live if she stepped aside and let him kill dad but Lily wouldn't move, she died to try and save him. Then Voldermort turned his wand and cast the killing curse on dad but it rebounded on Voldermort, he was destroyed, and all my dad got was a lightning shaped scar. Everyone thought Sirius had betrayed the Potters and Peter came to track in down. He shouted for all the muggles to hear how Sirius had betrayed Lily and James. Then apparently Sirius blew up the street, killing 12 muggles and Peter. The biggest bit they could find was a finger. Hagird took my dad out of the ruined house and flew him to his aunt and uncles. Dumbledore left him on the doorstep with a letter explaining what had happened. He didn't remember any of it happening but from then on my dad was

Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived."

Al talked for another hour at least. He detailed the adventures that his father had at Hogwarts. How he saved the philosophers, killed a basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets whilst discovering Riddle had opened it and framed Hagrid and saving Ginny, Al's mum, who had been possessed by Riddle, used a time turner to save his godfather, competed in the tri-wizard, saw Voldermorts re-birth and escaped, came in and out of the department of mysteries alive the only people to do that who weren't unspeakables, how he witnessed Dumbledore's death and how he went on a near year long journey to destroy the remaining Horcruxes, how he sacrificed himself for all the people in Hogwarts and ultimately defeating Voldermort. He explained how Peter Pettigrew had betrayed his friends and tricked everyone. How so many had lost their lives. How his father had been the master of death. All the time accompanied by his best friends Ron and Hermione, Rose's parents. To say Caly was awe struck was an understatement. No wonder people stared. Blimey. She was speechless, Scorpius was grinning at her as she struggled to find words.

"Well, I guess, history isn't always boring." They all burst out laughing and crept up the stairs to their dormitories.


	11. Problems

Problems

Harry climbed out of Minerva's fireplace and blinked soot out of his eyes. Minerva McGonagall sat behind her desk looking very serious, Pomona Sprout sat in one of the chairs a thoughtful expression on her face, Filius Flitwick was sitting on the sorting stool on a chair but still so much shorter than everyone. Neville Longbottom sat between the two of them, completely calm and Hagrid stood behind, Harry was unable to tell his expression because of the bushy beard. Horace stood at the corner of the desk.

"And?" Filius' high squeaky broke the tense silence.

"Yes, it is." Minerva paled, Pomona clutched her heart, Filius tumbled off his chair and stool, Neville took deep breaths, Hagrid clutched the back of Neville's chair so hard that it broke and Horace leaned against the desk taking out a handkerchief to wipe away the sweat that had sprung up. Harry helped Filius back onto his seat and repaired the back of Neville's chair with a flick of his wand.

"So Voldermort's wand." Neville said. "Who could have had it?" Harry shrugged.

"We rounded up all his death eaters. It's possible that the owner didn't know whose it was. It doesn't really matter, it's snapped in half and locked in a high security ministry vault in Gringotts. I think what we need to worry about more is Miss Hautly. What's she like?"

"Brilliant." The words came from Horace and Pomona simultaneously, they looked at each other surprised, Horace indicated she should continue.

"She's quiet, modest, I'd say, but a natural at Herbology. Released herself from the Mortius Brigar without instructions, she just knew stroking the central bulb would do it."

"Really." said Neville looking highly impressed.

"Yes. Works of instinct."  
"I'll second that." Horace broke in. "Made a perfect burn solution in 25 minutes, first time, that's more effective then some made by professionals. Then she went on to create a different method. Look." He drew out two sheets of paper and handed them over. One was a copy of the original method that had been so heavily edited it was almost impossible to tell what it said and the second was a much shorter version of the method, one that was her own. "Never had a more talented student. Got more talent than you Harry, my boy, Lily and Severus put together." Harry shifted uncomfortably at his supposed potions ability.

"And you?" He turned to Filius and Neville.

"We haven't done any practical work, her first piece of homework was acceptable."

"Not a spark in defence against the dark arts. Everyone else was disarming by the end of the lesson but not her. But then again look at me, I didn't start to do spells till my 5th year and I'm a Professor now." Harry nodded.

"Transfiguration?"

"Nothing but the only people who made progress were Miss Weasley and Mr Malfoy." Harry nodded again, then ran a hand through his hair.

"There has to be something. She definitely said he wanted something."

"Definitely it seems to have been the whole point of the torture."

"And there is something." Minerva interrupted. "This morning she bonded with Fawkes."

"What?" Harry's head snapped up.

"Fawkes came back to Hogwarts for the first time in 20 years. He bonded with her in front of the whole school." Harry ran a hand through his hair.

"She's destined for greatness." They all looked up and saw Professor Dumbledore gazing down at them. Next to him Snape was staring at them impassively.

"It's true. Phoenixs bond with those who will be great. For the right or wrong things but they will be great. Dumbledore is proof of that." He jerked his head at his neighbouring portrait. Who inclined his head.

"You're very kind Severus."

"So what do we do?" Neville asked.

"Keep an eye on her and see if anything happens."

As the weeks passed Caly began to grow more and more at home at the castle. Each day she would wake up and promptly wake Rose, who was not a morning person. They'd meet Al and Scorpius in the common room and go down to breakfast. They'd talk with them and the other first years. Caly had learnt French in junior school and had been a natural, she was nearly fluent, and so she had been the one who talked to Jean-Paul and eventually they began to learn more about him and his English became a little bit better. They'd have lessons which were, with the exceptions of Herbology and Potions, disasters. She just couldn't do magic. Her friends told her not to worry but she did, secretly. In the evenings they did their homework and talked until bed.

She had also experienced the colourful side of living in Hogwarts, namely discovering the pranks pulled by Fred and James and their separate friends. They seemed to have a competition and there targets were mostly the Slytherins and some of the Professors. Her favourite had been pulled by James and Colin when they had charmed the food on the Slytherin so that it would turn them different colours and the more you tried to rub it off the brighter if became. The Slytherins had been bright pink, orange, yellow, red, blue and purple for a week and a half before it had worn off.

The other thing she had learnt was just how obsessed everyone in Hogwarts was with Quidditch. It was why she was glad she had made friends with Phil, Dan, Mike and Jean-Paul. They could all talk about football, which they all loved though Mike and Dan were pretty keen on Rugby and Cricket too, whilst Rose, Al, Scorpius, Finn, Kyle, Martin and Declan talked about Quidditch. Anyhow she discovered the height of the obsession when the sign up sheet went up. There was a great mob, including Al, Scorpius, Rose and all the other wizard born first years, to sign up.

The morning of the tryouts was the most tense she had seen Al, Rose and Scorpius. They were barely eating. Their cousins came by wishing Al and Rose luck, they acted as if Scorpius didn't exist. She decided she didn't want to come watch try outs and so found herself entering Gryffindor tower alone. She looked around and realised the only person she recognised was James. He was sitting staring into the fire looking completely bored. Caly couldn't be bothered with homework now so she went to join him.

"Hey." she said plopping herself down next to him.

"Hi." he replied glancing at her briefly.

"Where are your friends?" Caly was sorely tempted to add 'and admirers' but decided against it, though James did always seem to have a huge swarm of people following him and James, unlike Al who tried to run away from them, liked the attention.

"Watchin Quidditch. You?"

"Same." They stared into the fire.

"Fancy a game of chess?" James said after a while.

"Chess?" Caly was really surprised. "Wizards play chess."

"Yes. It's my hobby." Caly raised her eyebrows. Loud, show off, prankster James Sirius Potter played chess. "Shut up."

"What?"

"I know what you're thinking."

"Oh. Are you any good 'cause if you're not I won't bother playing you."

"Oh you think you're good do you?"

"Definitely."

"Well I'm the best in my family and my uncle beat a giant chess set transfigured by the headmistress in his first year." Caly opened her mouth to think of a good come back. She couldn't best his statement so instead she said

"Bring it on."

Al, Scorpius and Rose came through the portrait all happy or ecstatic. They were just about to shout their news when they noticed a crowd next to a crowd around a table. They pushed themselves through till they could see and saw Caly and James having a furious chess match. The pieces were darting around the board so fast they couldn't work out who was winning.

"They've been playing since Quidditch trials started." said a girl in fourth year. Now it seemed the whole of Gryffindor house had gathered round the table. Everyone knew James was the best in the school but Caly was matching his moves with some of her own.

"Checkmate!" Caly shouted suddenly. James watched in horror as his king threw his crown onto the board at the feet of Caly's lone pawn. He gaped at her with the crowd. She glanced around and saw the whole house staring at her.

"Maybe next time amateur." With that she stood up and made her way through the crowd to Al, Scorpius and Rose.

"So, how did tryouts go?"

It turned out both Al and Scorpius had made the reserve team as Seeker and Chaser, Al was seeker and Scorpius Chaser. Rose, however, had made the first team as Beater. Apparently she was the first first year student to be a beater in over 2000 years. She was partnered with her cousin Fred who she played really well with because of when they played Quidditch at home. They had owled their parents immediately and it was while they were gone Caly went for a walk round the castle.

As she passed the charms classroom on the second floor she heard a strange noise coming from inside. She poked her head round and saw Professor Hardingly kissing Professor Overy, the astronomy teacher, very passionately. The thing that disturbed her the most about this was that Professor Overy was married. Deciding that it wasn't her problem and it didn't really concern her, she tried to back out quietly. However she failed. Her foot hit the door and they broke apart, jumping round. There was an awkward silence. Caly thought that she had best leave quickly so she shut the door after her and ran back up to Gryffindor tower.

She had nearly reached it when she heard another noise from inside another classroom. She was going to walk past, unwilling to see anymore of her professors kissing, when she realised the sound was sobbing. She pushed the door open and saw a adult she didn't recognise. He was bent over a table crying.

"Sir." The man started and looked round and straightened up. He looked her up and down.

"Miss Hautly?"

"Yes sir, are you a professor?"

"Yes I teach arithmancy."

"Arithmancy?" Arithm. Does that have anything to do with numbers?"

"Yes. How did you know?"

"It sounds like arithmetic, something taught in muggle schools."

"Ahh, very smart."

"Are you all right, Professor, do you need me to get someone?"

"No I will be alright."

Caly took this as her cue to leave, now with two problems on her mind. She had already decided not to tell anyone about Professor Hardingly and Professor Overy. From what she'd seen Hardingly had been broken by the women he loved and if Overy wanted to cheat on her husband, what was it to her? As for the arithmancy professor, she was going to respect his privacy too.

When she saw her friends she realised they had another problem.

"What's happened?" She questioned as she went over to join them."My dad." Scorpius said quietly. "He's thrown my mum and me out."

"Oh." She put her arm around him comfortingly, how many people had she seen like this? Too many.

"I should have seen it coming. I should have begged the hat to put me in Slytherin. It considered it. It considered them all but I had to go and choose Gryffindor."

"This isn't your fault."

"But-"

"No. You and your dad were bound to fall out eventually and if your mum sided with you it means she's just as good and liberal as you, okay."

"Yeah."

"So you actually chose Gryffindor?"

"Yeah, I thought it was supposed to choose for me."

"Me too! It told me I could be in any house except Slytherin. So I picked Gryffindor 'cause you guys were in it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, didn't fancy making new friends." He was looking better now. "You know I found another problem with you."

"What?" Scorpius asked.

"You need a nick name." Al and Rose grinned and nodded. Scorpius even let a small smile tug the corner of his lips.

"What are you thinking of."

"Scor or Scorp."

"Scor. Definitely."

When Caly went to bed she couldn't help but think back to all the problems from today. She rolled over and got comfortable and tried to forget about them. After all they weren't her problems.


	12. Caly's Abilites

Caly's Abilities

It was mid November before Caly received any news on the attack on her and James. To be honest she wasn't worrying about it anymore. She figured that he had realised she didn't have anything worth having. Besides nothing else had happened. The things she was more worried about was her magical ability, or lack of, and beating James at chess. They had started a little ritual of playing every Saturday when the Gryffindor team had their longest practise.

She was sat eating toast and moaning about the fact that they had all their lessons with the Hufflepuffs even if meant having the two lessons Caly could do. Atticus had become even more annoying after James and Colin and Fred and his gang had pranked him non-stop for a week. He was worse than the Slytherins but then again they didn't see much of the Slytherin's, after all everyone was asleep in the only lesson they shared with them, history of magic.

Caly didn't look up when the post came. She never got mail, why would she? Occasionally Fawkes came to join her for breakfast so she wasn't surprised to see him sore out of the sky and down beside her plate and nibble her toast. She was surprised to see a letter attached to his leg. She quickly untied it and checked the address. _Miss C. Hautly. _It was definitely for her. She opened it and read.

_Dear Miss Hautly,_

_Would you kindly come to my office at 11 am sharp. We have a few matters we wish to discuss with you._

_Prof. M. McGonagall_

_P.S. Armando Dippet_

"Who's Armando Dippet?" Caly asked with a confused frown on her face.

"Old headmaster of Hogwarts. Why?" Asked Scorpius.

"McGonagall wants to see me at 11 and she wrote Armando Dippet at the bottom."

"It'll be the password." Rose said off-handily. Caly stared at her. "The headmaster or mistress' office is guarded by a gargoyle, you need a password to get past it. Didn't you read Hogwarts A History?"  
"I didn't buy it. It wasn't on the booklist. I didn't have money spare."

"Oh." They went back to eating.

"I wonder why she wants to see me in her office? I've never been sent to any professors office. Hell I don't even know where it is!"

"Ask James." said Al "He knows where everything is."

Caly got up and walked over to him, Colin and the Scamander twins.

"Hey James."  
"Hey Caly."  
"Ummm. You know where McGonagall's office is?"  
"'couse, the map."  
"Oh yeah."  
"So you got summoned there, too, at 11."  
"Yep."  
"We should go together."  
"'kay. See you."

At 11 Caly and James met at the portrait hole and set off to McGonagall's office. James was much more chatty than he had been last time they had been alone. He talked about pranks he'd pulled and about how much he was looking forward to the up coming Quidditch games and the holidays. Caly didn't say very much, mainly nodded and made noises of ascent in the right places. Though she didn't mind him talking it was slightly irritating to listen to him for nearly 10 minutes. She didn't understand how Al had spent 10 years living with him.

"Armando Dippet" They told the gargoyle and he sprung aside. They climbed the winding spiral stair case and came to the door. They knocked once and received the call to enter.

On entering Caly was given a lot to look at. Firstly there were the people assembled. Professors Longbottoom, Slughorn, Flitwick, Sprout and, of course, McGonagall were there a long with Hagrid and a man who looked like an older version of Al, in fact the similarities were uncanny. It was Scor and his father except the eyes were the same this time. It didn't take James shout to work out who he was.

"Dad!" James ran and hugged the man who chuckled slightly at his son's enthusiasm. Caly took the time to study the rest of the office. There were bookshelves lining the wall. A glass cabinet containing strange objects. But most fascinating of all were the portraits, thought they were asleep. Caly read the plaques and realised quickly they were the old headmasters and mistresses. Her eyes searched for Armando Dippet and then Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape.

"Take a seat." Caly stopped staring at the sallow skinned man with black hair and dropped into a seat next to James. She noted his fathers hand rested protectively on his shoulder.

"Now I'm sure you have guessed why you're here." Caly and James nodded. It didn't take much guess work why they had been called together.

"Did you find him then, Dad?" James said excitedly.

"No." Mr Potter shook his head sadly. "We did receive an anonymous tip off awhile ago that named a man but we believe he has fled to the states and relations are… not so good so we haven't been able to locate him."

"So why are we here?"  
"Because." Mr Potter bit his thumb, thinking "I don't want you two doing anything stupid." James seemed to get what his dad was saying, Caly on the other hand was confused.

"Stupid?"  
"Don't go looking for the attacker."

"Why would I do that? I can't perform magic."  
"Well you never know, I also want to ask you a few questions."  
"Okay."  
"Now he was definitely male, right?"  
"Yes."

"And he didn't say what he wanted?"  
"No. I've told you this before."

"I know, I know. I just want to finalise everything 'cause this is really serious."

"Sorry."  
"Not a problem. Now the last thing is have either of you seen anything strange around the castle, because it is possible that the man had inside help." James shook his head instantly but Caly paused. Should she mention Professor Hardingly and Overy, or the arithmancy professor. No that was private. Just as she was going to say no she remembered her first lesson. Were teachers allowed to invade the minds of the pupils? Did professor Hardingly do it to everyone?"Caly?"  
"No."  
"Sure?"  
"Yes."

"James could you leave." James got up hugged his father goodbye, waved to Caly and then left.

Caly shifted awkwardly in her seat. She was now in a room full of adults, all looking at her very seriously. She had painful memories of the last time this had happened. She had got mad and blown up the water pipes all round the school. Mr Potter seemed to sense her unease and said gently.

"It's okay you're not in trouble, we just want to talk to you about your magic." Caly felt her heart sink. Was she going to be thrown out of Hogwarts because she wasn't magical enough?

"You see." Professor Longbottom continued. "When Hagrid went to give you your letter." Hagrid winked at her. "You told him you were 'suppressing your urges to do magic' is that correct?"  
"Yeah and he said he'd tell Professor McGonagall."

"And he did the moment he came back. I did a bit of research and found that most people who suppress it, which is very few, end up dieing when it comes exploding out of them. They have magical fits, per se, when they get angry and scared."  
"You think I have that."  
"No because you did magic in Ollivanders which Hagrid also told me. But even this wasn't normal magic because when the wand chooses the wizard it tends to choose them instantly instead of after half a minute like you. Also out on the steps when you were attacked you would expect your magic to come out but it did not."

"What are you saying?"  
"That I think there are two options. The first I have pretty much discarded but I'll tell you it anyway. You suppressed the magic because of the er… consequences that came from using it."  
"Yes."  
"My first thoughts therefore, were, that, now you found yourself in an environment where using magic is acceptable and well the right thing to do, it might come out. Once you felt safe."  
"But I feel safe and at home and that hasn't happened."  
"I know that's why I have discarded it. My other theory is that it all comes down to your mind power. To 'feel' the magic is not something wizards do. Then to suppress that to the extent you cannot feel it requires extraordinary mind control. You may have a mental capacity that surpasses anything we've seen."  
"Is there anyway to prove this?"  
"Two. One is occlumency and the second is illegal. I'd like to do them both to be sure but you don't have to do the second."  
"What's occlumency?"

"It's defending your mind from legilamency, which is when someone invades your mind." She looked at Mr Potter who was giving her the definition. "It's not easy though."  
"Can I try?"

"Sure. Stand up." Caly stood and faced Mr Potter. "I'll attack without warning."  
"What do I do?""Clear your mind, rid yourself of all emotion." Caly watched as his eyes subconsciously flicked towards the portrait of Severus Snape who smirked at him. Caly forced herself to concentrate and tried to rid herself of all thought and emotion. But it was near impossible. Then the force was back.

It was the same as the one she had encountered with professor Hardingly. Caly realised she didn't need to rid herself of emotion. She just needed to push. She opened her eyes and looked straight at Mr Potter whilst pushing away the resurfacing memories. She pushed and pushed until…

She heard a man shouting, a women screaming and high cold laugh. Then a flash a green light and the scene changed. A boy who looked like Al had his hands against the face of a man who's face was blistering. More screaming. Then it changed. A girl with bushy hair lay frozen on a hospital bed. A large chamber where a small ginger girl lay, dead or asleep. A giant snake reared, a 16 year old boy laughed. 100 dementors sped towards a man lying on the ground. A boy no older than 17 lay dead on the grass. A skeletal man rose from a cauldron. A man fell through a fluttering archway. Dumbledore was killed by Snape and falling from the astronomy tower. A small creature with huge ears lay in a grave. A boy with ginger hair lay still, dead, while his family wept around him. A tiny boy with mousey hair was also dead. Further on were the bodies of two people, man and wife, laying together, one could almost believe they were asleep but they weren't. Death.

Caly recoiled and fell backwards, sweating and shaking. She understood everything she had seen. It all fitted what Al had explained to her but seeing them was very different. Mr Potter had his hands over his face and Caly knew he had had to relive some of the most painful memories of his life. She felt a surge of pity for him and a surge of anger towards Tom Riddle, Lord Voldermort, whatever people wanted to call him. All that death and suffering because of him.

"I'm sorry." She said the words in a shaky voice.

"It's okay." He was gripping James vacated chair very tightly, breathing hard. "Don't expect you got most of that anyway."  
"Er… actually I got it all. Al explained on, like, my fourth day, or something like that. I understood all those memories."  
"Oh." There was silence then he asked "How did you do that. I did it once but that time I bounced the jinx back at the caster."  
"I pushed it back."  
"What?"  
"The force."  
"What force?"  
"The force that entered my head. You don't have to rid yourself of emotion." Harry looked shocked at this. "What?"

"I used to have lessons in occlumency and I have never felt a force. What about you Professor?" Caly looked at the other Professors who made no move to answer his question. It was only when a drawling voice spoke that Caly realised he'd addressed a portrait.

"Never." Professor Severus Snape answered calmly. "It's unheard of as far as I know."

"Well I think that answers all our questions doesn't it." said Professor Longbottom cheerfully. "No need to do the other method."  
"Wait what was the other method?" Mr Potter shifted awkwardly.

"I would use the imperius curse on you and you would have to throw it off. But it's an unforgivable curse the use of it on a fellow being earns you life in Azkaban."

"Then how could you use it on me?"  
"Permission from the minister, myself and most importantly you, would allow me to do so."

"What does the curse do?"  
"It gives me total control over you but you can fight it. It requires will and mind power but it can be done."  
"Can I do it?"  
"But there's no need!" Professor Longbottom said.

"Just to check." Caly said. She didn't know exactly know why she was begging to have this curse put on her, she guessed she just wanted to prove she could do something. To find the reason she couldn't do magic. "In case the occlu- thingy was a fluke." He looked at Professor McGonagall.

"It's up to Miss Hautly."  
"I want to do it."

"Okay, I'll attack without warning but it'll be something harmless."

Caly nodded and squared her shoulders, standing once more in the centre of McGonagall's office. Mr Potter composed himself and raised his wand. A streak of light shot from it and hit her in the chest. She stumbled back and immediately felt a feeling of weightlessness. She felt like she was floating and nothing could hurt her. But a tiny voice in her mind was saying **no. Fight it you don't want to feel this way. Reality is better. **Then Mr Potters voice came in _tap Professor Longbottom's head thrice. _**No. **_Tap it thrice. _**No I don't want to. **_DO IT! _**NO!**

"No!" she shouted the last one in her head and it also came from her mouth. The weightlessness was gone and she could feel again. She gulped in the air and calmed down.

"Well done." Mr Potter clapped her on the shoulder. "I think it's decided, it's all in your mind. I think once it comes through you'll have extraordinary talents. It should be interesting." He pulled out a battered pocket watch that looked at least 50 years old and checked the time. "Ah, damn it I'm late again." He strode to the fire and picked up a handful of green fire. He waved goodbye to the group in the office and stepped into the grate. Caly's eyes widened when he dropped the powder shouting minister of magic's office and the vanished in a flash of green flames.

"Floo powder." She looked up at Professor Longbottom who was smiling kindly. "Run along. I doubt you want to miss your weekly chess game with James." Caly left, not even bothering to ask how he knew she played chess every week with James.

The professors looked at one an other once she'd gone.

"Incredible." said Slughorn. "Incredible." The rest nodded speechlessly.

"But how will it come out?" Professor Sprout asked. Minerva shook her head.

"I have no idea. I will have to do some more research. I don't think we need to discuss anything more." The other professors took their cue to leave, departing in silence.

Caly wondered aimlessly through the castle. She was semi lost but didn't really care. Though she wanted to get back for chess, she needed to think now. She was magical, there was no denying that, it seemed but she had prevented herself from doing magic due to fear, she knew that, and now it had become so buried it was inaccessible. But Ollivander's? What had been different? What had enabled her to do magic? Was this why her wand was different? Her wand.

Caly froze. Something was falling into place inside her head. It seemed to make sense. Had she figured it out? Should she turn back and go to McGonagall or go to her friends? She didn't know anything for sure. And she still didn't know who her attacker was. That decided it. She ran off in the general direction of Gryffindor tower, trying to avoid running into any other students who were walking the halls.

Caly stopped again. This time she was completely lost. She looked around, she didn't recognise where she was. She considered asking one of the portraits for help but changed her mind. Most of the portraits hated being interrupted and were quite rude. Then up ahead she saw a flash of red hair.

"Hey! Hey!" She ran towards the person, she thought it was one of Al's cousins. "Roxanne!" The girl stopped and turned around. She had red hair and looked a lot like Roxanne except she was white and had blue adorning her robes.

"I'm not Roxanne."  
"Oops, sorry. You look really similar from the back. You're Dominique, right."  
"Yeah, but it's Dom. You're Caly, Al and Rosie's friend and the only person to beat James at chess."  
"Yeah. Look, I know you're not in my house but can you help me back to Gryffindor tower."  
"Of course but don't you want to go to the game? It's Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff."  
"Game? Wait that's today!"

"Yep, when did you think it was?"  
"Next week."

"C'mon, I'll take you down to the pitch and deposit you with my cousin or some first years."


	13. Quidditch and Christmas

Quidditch and Christmas

The game was amazing. She had been a bit dubious and nervous at first when she had been deposited at the top of the stands next to James and the twins and the rest of the first years. Al, Rose and Scor were all down on the pitch getting ready to take off, or Rose was, Al and Scor were sitting with Colin and a boy she didn't recognise in the reserve area. The only other people on the team she recognised were Roxanne and Fred Weasley.

"AND IT'S THE FIRST GAME OF THE SEASON! ALMOST CHAMPIONS GRYFFINDOR TAKE ON LAST PLACE HUFFLEPUFF. GRYFFINDOR LOST OUT ON TAKING THE QUIDDITCH CUP FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ABOUT 20 YEARS WHEN HALF THEIR TEAM WAS HIT BY A BAD CASE OF DRAGON POX A DAY BEFORE THE FINAL AGAINST SLYTHERIN. THEY DENY ANY PART BUT WE ALL KNOW THEY'RE DIRTY CHEATERS."

"JORDAN!"

"That's Nick Jordan." James told her. "He commentates and his sister Maise." He pointed to the girl at the front of the Gryffindor line. "Is Quidditch captain and chaser. They're best friends with Fred and their other best friend is Kay Wood, who's keeper." He pointed to the boy directly behind Maise. "And his little brother Jay is the reserve keeper he's a 3rd year. Then Roxanne is chaser. Fred and Rosie are beaters, but you know them. Then the other two are Olive and Nikki Madon, they're American. Olive, the older one who's a 6th year, is the third chaser and Nikki, 4th year, is seeker.

On the other team there's Milly Frisch captain and keeper, she's a 7th year, the chasers are Johnathen Peacher 5th year, Amelia Dion 6th year and Simon Moon, my year. Their beaters are Michael MacDougal who's a 4th year and Sam Finch-Fletchly whose a 3rd year. Their seeker is 5th year Matilda Lorn. The subs are 6th year Luke Peel as beater, Jonas in my year as keeper and two in your year as chaser and seeker."

"Oh it's Peter! He's must Sam's younger brother."

"Yeah he's reserve chaser."  
"And eugh Smith is reserve seeker."  
"You don't like him."  
"No I hate him and McMillan."

"AND HERE COMES MADAME HOOCH WITH THE BALLS." Nick's voice was magically amplified. "THE CAPTAINS ON HAVE SHAKEN HANDS AND…THEY'RE OFF! GRYFFINDOR MAKING HISTORY WITH THE FIRST FIRST YEAR BEATER EVER, MISS ROSE WEASLEY." They Gryffindor's cheered at this. "THERE'S NO DOUBT SHE'S UP TO IT. HER FAMILY ARE PRACTICALLY BORN PLAYING QUIDDITCH."

"Jordan get on with the match."

"SORRY PROFESSOR."

"Who's he sitting next to?"  
"McGonagall. She could've handed the position of keeping the commentator in line to Flitwick but she really enjoys it for some reason."

"SO JORDAN WITH QUAFLLE, GO SIS! SHE PASSES TO MADON, BACK TO JORDAN TO WEASLEY. WEASLEY DUCKS A BLUDGER AND ANOTHER. OUCH! FLIES STRAIGHT INTO KEEPER FRISCH. NOT SURE WHETHER THAT'S A FOUL. SO HUFFLEPUFF IN POSSESION WITH DION. OOOH, HUFFLEPUFF LOOSE POSSESION, NICE BLUDGER THEIR FROM WEASLEY. STOP YELLING AT YOUR CHASER YOU IDIOT OF A CAPTAIN AND GUARD YOUR POSTS THEY'RE WIDE OPEN! WAIT WHAT AM I SAYING, KEEP YELLING!" Caly was already laughing hard. "WEASLEY AIMS, SHOOTS AND SCORES! 10-0 TO GRYFFINDOR! YES!"

The game went on. It seemed Gryffindor were superior in every department except seeker. They were 70-10 up and the game could have been over and won twice but Nikki had missed the snitch and it was only sheer luck the Hufflepuff seeker hadn't caught it. It was getting irritating, she could sense James' frustration. Their seeker was really only good at one thing and that was following the other seeker. Caly had a feeling this game was never going to end when.

"AND LORN IS SPEEDING UP, YES SHE'S SEEN THE SNITCH! AFTER HER MADON! YES SHE'S GAINING!" WHAM! A Hufflepuff beater had collided with Nikki and knocked her off her broom. She was free falling to the ground. The crowd let out a collective gasp of horror as she hit the ground and didn't move. "YOU CHEAT! YOU STINKING CHEAT!" Nick was yelling into the microphone but McGonagall was hurrying away to see if Nikki was ok. "YOU FILTHY GOOD-FOR-NOTHING- WOW!" Everyone gasped as a blur of red and gold shot up from the ground. Nick was standing there speechless. Caly's mouth was hanging open. She had never seen anything move so fast. No one spoke until.

"AL YOU NEED TO GO FASTER!" Scor was standing in the reserve place and shouting at the blur. Caly gaped at James. That blur was Al. He'd obviously heard Scor because he seemed to catch up. He was at their heels. Then they were neck and neck. For a moment no one knew what had happened then Al came down to the middle of the pitch, hand high two gold wings coming out either side of his fist.

"YES! GRYFFINDOR WINS! 220-10! AND WHAT A CATCH FROM RESERVE SEEKER ALBUS POTTER! I THINK THEY MAY NEED TO RETHINK WHO PLAYS FIRST AFTER THAT! THAT'LL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS ONE OF THE GREATEST CATCHES HOGWARTS HAS EVER SEEN. CERTAINLY A RIVAL TO THE ONE HIS FATHER DID IN HIS FIRST YEAR."

"Come on." James was pulling her off to where Al had landed and was surrounded by his team. It seemed the rest of his family were coming over to congratulate him. Even his Hufflepuff cousin, Molly, gave him a hug and told him the catch was spectacular.

The after party went on till midnight and it was good thing that it was still the weekend because she knew she'd never get through her lessons otherwise. Al had been the centre of attention, which he really hated. He kept trying to slip off to where Caly, Rose and Scor were to talk privately but people kept dragging him back. At 10:30 Olive had climbed through the portrait hole and said her sister had woken up briefly and was absolutely fine but she wouldn't be out of the hospital wing till Tuesday and that the Hufflepuff beater was serving three months worth of detention. This had raised everyone's spirits even more. Fred and his friends had brought food from the kitchen and James and Colin had disappeared for an hour or two to arrive with bottles of something called 'butterbeer' and mountains of sweets. It was undoubtedly the best party Caly had ever attended.

The weeks after the victory saw the Gryffindors in continued good spirits. First of all they had only three weeks of school left, which meant Christmas was fast approaching. Also Slytherin had lost to Ravenclaw in the next game by a margin of 10 points which, according to her friends, was excellent news. This meant Gryffindor were in the lead of the Quidditch cup by 200 points, they had 210, Ravenclaw 10 and Slytherin and Hufflepuff had 0. The point system worked by subtracting the winners score from the losers, this was also the amount the house won which meant Gryffindor were in lead for the house cup, too. Al was happy because him and Nikki were sharing the roles of seeker and res seeker and Maise said she would finalise the day before the match and he was going to see his parents and little sister again soon. Rose, too, was happy because of Quidditch and the prospect of seeing her family. She was always complimented on her beating skills by everyone and she, too, wanted to see her parents and brother. Scor was pleased because he was getting less and less nasty comments and remarks thrown his way by everyone, bar McMillan who wanted to make the quartet suffer. Also he was looking forward to having a proper Christmas alone with his mother.

Caly didn't really have anything to look forward to. She was happy Gryffindor were in the lead and for her friends achievements but Christmas was a pretty bleak looking for her. Professor Longbottom had come round with a list earlier in the week for Gryffindors who wanted to stay the holiday and she was dismayed to see her name was the only one on the list. Her friends had tried to cheer her up but honestly she wasn't looking forward to being left in the common room all alone. Also there was the problem that she didn't have any money to buy presents with. She had sat racking her brains but she couldn't think of anything. Until the first day of the holidays.

She had bid goodbye to her friends who were taking the carriages down to the train station and was wandering through the halls all alone when she had walked into Professor Slughorn. She was undoubtedly his favourite student and he made a point of it. He liked Al and Rose, too, but he ignored Scor. Yesterday he'd had a Christmas party and it had been so awkward, though that might have been the fact she'd gone with James.

"_Hey." James sat next to her after their game, which she'd won again. "Did you get an invite?"  
"Yeah, so did Al and Rose."  
"Duh, my whole family did."  
"You going?"  
"Yeah I didn't go last year 'cause dad warned me off but now Al and Rose are going I thought I might."  
"Why does he want us to go with someone?"  
"'cause he's weird like that."_

"_You going with anyone?"  
"Nah."  
"Hey, we should go together." _

"_Yeah sure."  
"As friends, of course."  
"Um, yeah, sure. Whose Al and Rose taking?"  
"I think Rose is taking Jean-Paul because he really needs to get out more. He like never leaves the common room and Al is taking Scor."  
"He's taking Malfoy." Caly rolled her eyes and didn't reply. _

_James had 'picked her up' at 7 along with JP, Rose, Al and Scor. They had gone to his office which had a set table for 18. It was a Weasley plus one gathering really. When Slughorn had seen Caly and James together he had vanished two chairs and they'd all sat. Slughorn had made the introductions, most of which were unnecessary. Vic had brought her best friend/head boy Daniel Corner, who had a sister in her year. Fred had brought his best friend and now, it seemed, current girlfriend Maise. Molly had brought her best friend Ally Longbottom. Dom had brought Marianne Goldstein and Roxie had brought her boyfriend Frank Longbottom, Ally's little brother. Slughorn had spent most of the evening recounting tales of the Weasley-Potter family he taught and Caly's potion abilities. As he grew increasingly tipsy on oak matured mead he insisted that Caly and James were in love and meant to be together. Everyone looked at them suspiciously as they furiously denied this and turned redder and redder. _

"Caly, my girl, wanted to apologise for last night. A bit tipsy you see, a little too much of Rosmerta's mead."  
"It's ok, sir, I understand."

"Good, good but I still wager you'll get together." Caly refrained from rolling her eyes. "Like James and Lily, they just needed a bit of luck, though sharing a dorm did help." Caly nodded but only one part of the sentence registered with her brain. Luck. She knew what to give them for Christmas.  
"Sir." Caly said interrupting his nostalgia tour.  
"Yes my dear."  
"Could I borrow one of the dungeons? I want to brew something."  
"Of course, of course. Been meaning to give you this for a while, now, and no time like the present."

"What?"  
"I have a bit of an early Christmas present for you." He drew a key from inside his waistcoat. "For dungeon 10. It's a one person dungeon, meant for private brewing." He placed the key in her hand. "It's yours now. Use it well." He walked off jovially, leaving Caly standing there feeling beyond excited. She had her own place to brew potions.

She sprinted there and unlocked it. There was a cauldron and a small fire burning. There were two cupboards full of ingredients and phials and another with lots of potion books and quills, parchment and ink. The most interesting thing was a glass fronted cabinet that lots of space potions. In here were samples of all the solutions she'd made in class. Folded behind them were copies of her own methods. Each individually labelled by her. There was a note lying at the bottom, she picked it up and read:

_Dear Caly,_

_I see I have finally got round to giving you the key, excuse an old buffers memory. In here are samples of potions you have created with your own method and a copy of said method. When you brew something in your own time please a copy of the method in here and a phial of it and mark it with a star. I'll take a copy of the method and remove the star when I put your next piece of class work away. May you brew successfully._

_Yours_

_Prof H. Slughorn _

She smiled and replaced the note so she wouldn't forget to do what it said. She then flipped through the potion books until she found one that detailed making felix felicis, the luck potion. She found all the ingredients and began brewing. It was relatively challenging and she thoroughly enjoyed brewing it. When she was done she decanted it and tried a drop. She reckoned the effects would last about 10 minutes. She pulled out her wand and said confidently "Wingardium Leviosa." The whole work bench lifted off the ground. She lowered it and smiled. The effects had worked.

She waited for it to wear off and then began her editing process. An hour and a half later she had created her own version of felix felicis. This time she tried a spell that Rose and Scor had been struggling with, to transform a quill into a wine goblet. She tried the spell and it worked instantly. She reversed it and then waited for the effects to wear off. She put a copy of the method and phial of it, marked with a star, into the cabinet and then decanted the rest into phials, one each for Al, Rose, Scor, James, Roxie, Dom, Molly, Fred and Vic.

She took them upstairs to her dorm and wrote them each a note;

_Dear Scor,_

_Merry Christmas! I hope everything is great with your mother in your new home and that you have a fun Christmas that has a bit of season cheer in it. The present is made by me (I'm sure you can guess what it is now) and I can a sure you it works perfectly, I tested it on myself and I transformed a quill into a goblet (Now you definitely know what it is). Hope Fawkes gets this to you on the right day. _

_Merry Christmas, again._

_Love,_

_Caly_

_P.S. Yes it's my method._

_P.P.S Remember the rules involved when using this._

_Dear Al/Rose_

_Merry Christmas! I hope your siblings aren't driving you too insane, not that you need them to be insane (Ha Ha, just kidding, a bit.) Anyways here is your Christmas present. I got all your family that I know plus Scor the same thing. Okay I didn't 'get' it I made it (And now you know what it is.) The potion works to a T, I transformed a quill into a wine goblet (damn this is supposed to be a surprise, never mind). It is my version of the method (duh like I'd use anyone else's they all suck.). Hope this finds you alright._

_Merry Christmas, again_

_Love, _

_Caly_

_P.S. Remember the rules involved when using this._

_Dear Vic/Fred/Molly/Dom/Roxie/James_

_Merry Christmas! This is my Christmas present to you all. I made it myself out of my own method and it works 100%. Hope you get this on Christmas morning. See you at school_

_Merry Christmas, again_

_Love, _

_Caly_

_P.S. Remember the rules involved when using this._

On Christmas Eve Caly sent Fawkes off with the phials. She had told him to be very careful because they were delicate and she was sure he understood. She was sad when he flew away because he was the only company she'd had in Gryffindor tower. She'd ended up eating meals there because she was the only student at Hogwarts which surprised her but she got over it and spent a lot of time attempting to do magic, reading and brewing potions. As she climbed into bed she wasn't looking forward to tomorrow because she wasn't expecting presents and she had the prospect of Christmas lunch alone with the teachers, awkward.

Christmas morning dawned with wintery sun peeking through the curtains in the girls dormitory. She sat up yawning and stretched she saw Fawkes perched on the corner of her bed. "Did they get their presents?" He bowed his head which she took as a yes. She drew apart the hangings and nearly tumbled out of bed in shock. She had a large stack of presents by her bed. She gaped at them, then she turned to Fawkes. "Did you have anything to do with this?" He looked at her innocently and she rolled her eyes and then grinned. She had Christmas presents!She picked up the first package which was slightly squishy. She opened it and found a red, hand-knitted sweater with a green plant on the front. There were also some home made mince pies. She pulled it on and she was amazed to see it fitted. A note fluttered out of the wrappings. _Merry Christmas dear, I understood from Al and Rosie that you were not expecting presents and I thought you would like one of these. I make them for everyone. I did the same things for Al's dad. Love Mr and Mrs Weasley. _For some reason she felt her eyes watering so she hastily picked up the next present. She read the writing on the front first _Merry Christmas From Vic, __Dom,_**Bill**_**,**__**Fleur **__**and Louis**__. P.S. Originally this was just from me and Dom but the rest of my family decided to scrape in, Bill and Fleur are my parents and Louis is my little brother-Vic._ It turned out to be a large selection of different sweets. The next package was from Fred, Roxie and their parents George and Angelina. They had given her a wide array of products from George's shop Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Molly, her little sister Lucy and her parents Percy and Audrey, gave her a selection of wizarding classics, including the story of Merlin. Scor had sent her a special lighter that would never run out of flame. Rose had given her two books; one was A New History of Magic which also seemed to be from her brother Hugo who was 9 and her dad, Ron, and mum, Hermione, and the other was a book on the Catalina flower and all it's many properties and uses, which seemed to be just from her. Al had given her a box of dictating quills, again this seemed to be not just from him but also form James, Lily and Harry and Ginny, his parents, and a small goblin made knife, just from him.

She loved all these presents as they were all, either, practical or entertaining. However her two favourite presents were at the bottom of the pile. The first was large and square but bulky at either end. It had a note from James on the front. _Hey Caly, I hope your Christmas is good and you've not died of boredom yet. I know the quills were sorting from me but that was because Al couldn't decide so dad said 'why don't we get one from all of us and one just from you' but I'd always known what to get you. I hope you like it. I did the charm myself. Love, James. _Caly opened it and her mouthed formed an 'o' of surprise. It was a chess set but it was all themed with the Catalina flower. The front of the case had one in the centre, than the squares had a flower on each square and the base of each piece had the shape. It had another note saying_ bring on Saturday chess-James_

The other package had a very particular shape and she was sure she knew what it was but she didn't want to get her hopes up. She found an envelope attached to the front with_ Caly _written on it in very familiar handwriting. She opened it to find a muggle Christmas card of the nativity scene, on the inside it read;

_Dear Caly,_

_I hope everything is well in your school, I hope you have made many friends and our doing well in whatever studies wizards and witches pursue. I did not know how to get this to you until the phoenix turned up. I did not know you owned such a bird but it carried packages and letters bearing your handwriting so I knew it must be yours. I was very dubious to increase it's load but he is a very insistent bird. This belonged to my late wife. I found it whilst tiding up, and I thought of you. It will be of far more use to you than it will be to me but it means a lot to me, please take good care of it. I know yours was destroyed by children but it must be safe, surely you can charm it or something. I must admit you are probably my favourite child to ever pass through my care, you were always different, special, and not just because you are a witch. You are special and you matter, no matter what people say. Know that there are people out there that care about you. Maybe we can correspond via this phoenix of yours now. I would like that a lot. You are very much like a daughter to me. Have a very merry Christmas, Caly, and may your good will never end._

_Yours faithfully,_

_Herbert. _

Caly was crying now. Herb's letter had touched her in the same way Mrs Weasley's had but deeper. The feeling that there were people out there that cared about her and even, to some extent, considered her family. She unwrapped the paper with trembling hands. Inside was a hard case with a padlock, the key was on a chain in the lock. She unlocked it, took the key out and hung it around her neck. She opened the lid and found a guitar.

Caly had played the guitar since she was six. There had been a boy of 14 who had played it and the two of them got on and he'd ended up teaching her how to play. He'd left the home when he was 16 but not after he had given her his old guitar. She'd always played with that guitar since he'd started teaching her. They'd spent many afternoons playing and singing along to whatever came on the radio. However her guitar had been smashed by a very destructive 7 year old, a year ago and she had no money to replace it. She honestly couldn't believe that Herb would give her something like this. Something that was so personal to him.

Later that evening, as she sat in the comfiest armchair by the fire carelessly popping another bertie botts every flavour bean into her mouth, warm in Mrs Weasley's sweater, guitar around neck, a half played game of chess in front of her she decided this had been her best Christmas. Not even the awkward lunch could change that. Thought that had been bad. It had been around half an hour of grilling from the teachers on subjects, what she thought of Hogwarts etc. etc.. She had wanted to die when Slughorn brought up the her and James story again especially as the teachers found it very amusing. But apart from that it had been the best Christmas ever.


	14. Burning Letters

Burning Letters

The rest of the holidays went by fast. With the new books, the chess set, guitar and dungeon meant she could have fun. Besides everyone in fourth year and above reappeared on New Years Eve for the ball that Hogwarts held. Having the common room full and a few friendly faces to talk cheered her up, she'd ended up hanging out with Fred and his friends and found them all really funny. He thanked her for the potion, as did the others when they saw her in the corridor. She in turn thanked them for their presents.

The day after New Year her friends returned and the day after that classes started. Life had resumed it's normal pace for the rest of the week, with the teachers enthusiastically springing tests on them to make sure they hadn't forgotten everything meaning they had little time to chat till Saturday afternoon. Caly had defeated James in half an hour with her new chess set, who liked her a lot more than James' pieces when Al, Rose and Scor arrived back from practice. James went to talk with Colin and the Scamander twins leaving the four of them alone.

"How was practice?"  
"Okay." Rose said whilst Scor watched Al who had stood up and walked off to his dorm.  
"What's up with him?"  
"He and Nikki had a race to the snitch and he won but for some unknown reason Maise decided to make Nikki the seeker for the game against Ravenclaw."  
"No way."  
"Yes way." said Scor. "He's been in an awful mood ever since." They lapsed into silence again.

"How was your Christmas then Scor?"  
"What? Oh it was great! It finally felt like Christmas, I mean I didn't get many presents but it didn't seem to matter. It's so nice to be able to laugh without someone reprimanding you. What about you, weren't you the only one here?"  
"Yeah, it was a bit of a drag until Christmas day itself but I'd say my best Christmas ever, even if Slughorn decided to tell the staff that James and I would be together."  
"What?"  
"I had to have Christmas lunch with all the staff, all my other meals I had in here but that one I had to go and eat on the great hall. But it was great 'cause I got presents."  
"Oh yeah my whole family sent you them didn't they."  
"Yeah, I like them all but my favourite came from Herb."  
"Herb? The guy from your care home."  
"Yeah, he sent me his wife's old guitar."  
"You play guitar?"  
"Yeah."  
"Can you play something?"  
"Sure I'll go grab it." She ran up and grabbed the case. She ran back down to her old seat and unlocked it. At the same time Al came back down."What's going on?" he said as he sat next to Rose.

"Caly got a guitar for Christmas and she's going to play for us."  
"Oh, who sent it to you?"  
"Herb, the man from the care home."  
"Oh."  
"Just be warned I'm a little rusty, I haven't played since my other guitar got smashed."  
"But you got it for Christmas."  
"Yeah I played for a week but I'm still out of practice." There was a pause.  
"Are you going to play anything then?"  
"I'm trying to remember a song, Scor." There was a bit more of a pause then.  
"Okay got one." she started to play.

"_Hey, hey, hey" _she sung  
_"Your lipstick stains on the front lobe of my left side brains  
I knew I wouldn't forget you, and so I went and let you blow my mind  
Your sweet moon beam, the smell of you in every single dream I dream  
I knew when we collided, you're the one I have decided who's one of my kind_

_Hey soul sister, ain't that Mr. Mister on the radio, stereo, the way you move ain't fair, you know!  
Hey soul sister, I don't want to miss a single thing you do...tonight  
Hey, hey, hey_

_Just in time, I'm so glad you have a one-track mind like me  
You gave my life direction, a game show love connection we can't deny  
I'm so obsessed, my heart is bound to beat right out my untrimmed chest  
I believe in you, like a virgin, you're Madonna, and I'm always gonna wanna blow your mind_

_Hey soul sister, ain't that Mr. Mister on the radio, stereo, the way you move ain't fair, you know!  
Hey soul sister, I don't want to miss a single thing you do...tonight_

_The way you can cut a rug, watching you's the only drug I need  
You're so gangsta, I'm so thug, you're the only one I'm dreaming of  
You see, I can be myself now finally, in fact there's nothing I can't be  
I want the world to see you be with me_

_Hey soul sister, ain't that Mr. Mister on the radio, stereo, the way you move ain't fair, you know!  
Hey soul sister, I don't want to miss a single thing you do tonight,  
Hey soul sister, I don't want to miss a single thing you do...tonight_

_Hey, hey, hey  
Tonight  
Hey, hey, hey  
Tonight ."_

The common room burst into applause after she played the final chord. She looked around, previously unaware that Rose, Al and Scor weren't the only ones listening in. Caly went red as the applause carried on, along with the whooping and whistling. She glance at her friends and noticed they were all grinning at her like maniacs.

"That was awesome!" Al said when the applause eventually died down.  
"Yeah you didn't say you could sing too!" Scor said in a tone of fake hurt.  
"Jeeze is there anything you can't do?""Magic!" They all laughed at her response to Rose's question.

When February came the weather changed and the sun began to weakly shine. Caly barely saw Al, Rose or Scor now because they seemed to spend their entire time down on the Quidditch pitch. The match against Ravenclaw was in a week and if they won they would book themselves a place in the final because they had 200 points, Slytherin 90, Ravenclaw 10 and Hufflepuff 0, after Slytherin had beaten Hufflepuff in the first came back after Christmas. Al was in an increasingly bad mood about playing reserve seeker and frequently ranted about Nikki's inability to catch the snitch. Furthermore Fred and Maise had broken up because Fred was cheating on her with Olive. The three weren't talking to each other, and as Maise and Olive were chasers this was incredibly problematic. But Maise also had something against Scor which meant she refused to put him on the first team and Colin had been hit by a conjunctivitis curse and was in the hospital wing.

All in all the chances of winning the game looked bad as Caly took her seat next to James in the stands, this time on time. She couldn't see the players.

"Where are they?"  
"What? Oh you missed that bit, well, they fly out when Nick calls their name."

"WELCOME HOGWARTS." came the booming voice of Nick Jordan. "TODAY IS GRYFFINDIR VS RAVENCLAW. IF GRYFFINDOR WIN THEY WILL BOOK THEIR PLACE IN THE FINAL FOR THE 20TH YEAR IN A ROW! AND HERE COME THE RAVENCLAW PLAYERS. CAPTAIN AND SEEKER- 7TH YEAR DANIEL CORNER, THE CHASERS- 6TH YEARS JIMMY GOLDSTEIN AND EWAN TIREL AND 4TH YEAR DELILAH HART, TWIN 5TH YEAR BEATERS- ABIGAIL AND AARON DOEN AND KEEPER- 4TH YEAR REAGAN DOART. THE SUBS- SOPHIE HOWN, 7TH YEAR FOR KEEPER, 4TH BONNIE STUART FOR BEATER, 2ND YEAR RILEY DOART FOR CHASER AND 1ST YEAR EMMA CORNER FOR SEEKER.

AND NOW THE GRYFFINDORS CAPTAIN AND CHASER- 5TH YEAR MAISE JORDAN, CHASERS- 6TH YEAR OLIVE MADON AND 3RD YEAR ROXANNE WEASLEY, KEEPER-5TH YEAR KAY WOOD, BEATERS- 5TH FRED WEASLY AND 1ST YEAR ROSE WESALEY AND SEEKER- 4TH YEAR NIKKI MADON. SUBS- 3RD YEAR JAY WOOD FOR KEEPER, NO SUB FOR BEATER BECAUSE 2ND YEAR COLIN CREEVY IS IN THE HOSPITAL WING AND 1ST YEARS SCORPIUS MALFOY FOR CHASER AND ALBUS POTTER FOR SEEKER.

ALBUS POTTER WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SUPERB CATCH AT THE END OF THE MATCH AND MANY WONDER WHY MADON WAS PICKED OVER POTTER. WHO KNOWS? I DO KNOW THAT JORDAN AND CORNER HAVE SHAKEN HANDS, THE QUAFFLE HAS BEEN RELEASED AND THE GAME HAS BEGUN!

SO, JORDAN TO WEASLEY TO MADON TO WEASLEY TO JORDAN TO WEASLEY BACK TO JORDAN WHOSE PASSING…NO NOT TO ROXIE! GRYFFINDOR LOOSE POSSESION TIREL WITH THE QUAFFEL TO HART TO GOLDSTEIN, GOOD PASS OVER MADON TO TAKE IT BACK TO TIREL. OHHH, GOOD BLUDGER FROM ROSE WEASLEY TIREL DROPS THE BALL TO JORDAN TRIES A BACK PASS TO WEASLEY WHICH IS INTERCEPTED BY HART. WHO SHOOTS AND SCORES 10-0 TO RAVENCLAW."

The game continued with Maise's grudge against Olive showing more and more. She refused to pass to her so would either fly into trouble or pass to Roxie who was always blocked because the Ravenclaws, smart as they were, had picked up on the fact she wouldn't pass to Olive and were guarding Roxie. This meant that Kay was being constantly bombarded with shots that he couldn't always save. His best option was to throw to Olive when they scored but that only got them so far because Maise wouldn't catch anything Olive threw to her and Roxie was still blocked off.

By the time it was 120-0 they were realised that they were pinning their hopes on a very bad seeker. Nikki wasn't very bad really but in comparison to Daniel Corner she was. Nikki had had to break the rules twice to prevent Corner catching the snitch but in comparison to what the score was at the end it would have been better to have let him catch it then because when he did catch it the final score was 330-0. The worst part was that the snitch had been hovering by Nikki's knee and she didn't notice. Not even after all the yells. Gryffindor weren't out of the running yet because they were in second, Ravenclaw on 340, them on 200, Slytherin on 90 and Hufflepuff looking at a 10th consecutive bottom place finish. But that didn't stop the glum feeling in the common room. The worst part was when Maise stood up on the plinth and apologised.

"Guys." she said through tears. "I am so sorry, I was so selfish. I'd resign but McGonagall won't let me. I should never have carried my grudges out onto the pitch but it's not over yet Slytherin need to win by 120 points to make it to the final. Which is why Nikki I'm replacing you with Albus, I'm sorry but I made a mistake to keep you on, I don't know what I was thinking. But tomorrow this all goes behind us, tomorrow we train harder than ever because we are going to win this cup! Ravenclaw won't put half our team in the hospital wing so we will be able to win!" She got off the plinth hiccupping slightly and sat back down.

Despite the motivational speech, insane Quidditch practice schedules and Olive, Fred and Maise on speaking terms a gloom still hung over Gryffindor. They were really upset about loosing their lead in both the house and Quidditch cups. It also put a lot of strain on the 11 members of the Qudditch team, counting reserves. Caly had started letting them copy her homework because they spent most of their time practising. It took two weeks for something to arrive that took Quidditch completely of their minds.

They were sitting eating breakfast, with Al and Scor hastily copying up their Transfiguration homework. When the post arrived. Fawkes swooped down, dropped the letter on her plate and left without so much of a glance. She opened it curiously, knowing it couldn't be because she was yet to reply to his letter. She unfolded it and read

_We will get it. Give it to us. Now! _Then it burst into flame. Everyone looked up as she gave a mini shriek and dropped it, it burnt itself into nothing.

"What was that?" asked Scor looking shocked.  
"I don't…I…I don't…I mean I'm not sure."  
"What did it say?" asked Rose curiously.  
"Er.. Something along the lines of we'll get it, give it to us… soon? No now."  
"What is it talking about?" Caly leant forward and lowered her voice.  
"I think, I'm not sure, but I think it's from the person who attacked us."  
"Are you sure?"  
"No, but, he wanted something. I mean, there can't be two people who want something of mine."  
"Unless it's really valuable."  
"Yes but I don't own anything valuable. Oh no."  
"What?"  
"I figured it out. God I am so stupid."  
"What are you talking about?"  
"Just before the match against Hufflepuff I was in the headmistresses office and after I came out. I was thinking about it and I'm pretty sure I realised what they wanted but I got distracted by the game and I've forgotten!"  
"How could you forget something so important?"  
"Well the Quidditch was very distracting."  
"We need to go to professor McGonagall." said Rose.  
"I can't."  
"Why not?"  
"Because I don't have any proof."  
"But we saw you get the letter."  
"Yes but you don't know what it said. I'm the only one who read it. I mean imagine I went to McGonagall and said I got a letter demanding something and I think it's linked to the attack but I can't show it to you because it burst into flame. Do you really think she's going to believe me? Doesn't it sound a little implausible?"  
"Yes but-"  
"No Rose." Scor cut in "Caly's right. She doesn't have any proof, at all. It's just her word."  
"But she didn't have proof about the attack."  
"Really? Because the state of them was normal wasn't it, the fact they had the same story was coincidental and the wand just flew itself there and snapped itself in two, did it?"  
"But-"  
"Come on Rosie." Al said "What does our dads always say, evidence is the first thing they need to convict someone."  
"But we don't need to convict anyone."  
"That's beside the point Rose. The point is that you need evidence to make people believe you." Rose sighed understanding she was out numbered on this.  
"Fine but if anything bad happens."  
"Don't worry about it."  
"We're in Hogwarts, Rose! What's the worst that could happen?" asked Caly  
"Do you really want me to answer that, given who my parents are?"  
"Well no, but that was Riddle. It's different." Al, Rose and Scor all gaped at her."What?"  
"You called him Riddle!"  
"Well what am I supposed to call him? Lord Voldermort? Please it's not like it matters anymore besides I don't find his new name scary, just a little presumptuous." They kept gaping at her all the way to Transfiguration until they were distracted by their work.

From then on everyday she received a note that burst into flame the second she read it. They were always the same. Caly had to admit it worried her a bit. She seemed to be the only one who could read it because when Scor leant over to try and read it, it immediately burst into flame. She didn't understand why they would want something so badly and she was so frustrated and angry with herself that she had forgotten what she had worked out. It was there in the back of her mind, like a word on the tip of your tongue that you can't quite remember.

Caly picked up the letter in the morning out of sheer habit. She knew it wasn't going to tell her anything interesting, but it would burst into flame so she might as well read it. She flicked it open and froze when she read the message inside.

_We may not hold one you hold dear but you hold dear your friends and therefore one's that they hold dear you hold dear._ It burst into flame as normal and left her frozen.

"Caly?" asked Al, concernedly "Are you ok?" Caly shook her head and stood up. She walked out of the Great Hall leaving behind her bag. Scor, Al and Rose exchanged a confused look, then gathered her things and followed her. The looked around the Entrance Hall and saw her sitting on the steps staring out into the grounds.

"Caly, what's the matter? What's happened?"

"The letter." she was shaking. "It was different it said that they had taken someone one of you guys held dear to get at me." She stood up brushing away the tears that were springing up. "Rose was right we should have gone to McGonagall, whether we have proof or not. This is getting serious. We're in way over our heads. Something's going on and I don't think I can run from it but I do know that I'll need all the help I can get when it comes." Scor, Al and Rose stood numb trying to process what she had just said.

"Wait they've taken someone one of us three hold dear." said Scor shocked.  
"Well technically two because Rose and Al are related everyone Rose holds dear so does Al and vice a versa."  
"What? Whatever, that's not the point they've kidnapped someone?"  
"Yes."  
"Okay lets go to McGonagall."

They set off, Caly pretty sure of the route now. They walked in silence trying to digest the news. Caly was panicking inside. Why was this all happening because of her? If only she could remember, she'd hand it over in a heart beat, probably. Scor could only think one thing; 'Please let it not be mum. Please let it not be mum' but then again, he reasoned, it probably was mum. If they'd taken someone he held dear because the disappearance of a Weasley would be the front page of every paper. Al and Rose were both hoping it wasn't one of their family but they felt slightly reassured by the fact that there had been no news so it was unlikely anyone had been taken.

When they came to the gargoyle Caly said "Armando Dippet." and it sprung aside to let them up the revolving spiral staircase. When the four of them came to the top Caly knocked on the door. When there was no response she knocked again, harder. Still no reply. She looked at the others then poked her head around the door. She couldn't see anyone so she came in.

"Professor McGonagall?" she asked warily. Scor, Al and Rose came in behind her looking around.  
"She's not here." said a drawling voice. Scor, Rose and Al all jumped but Caly kept her cool and looked up at the portrait.  
"Hello Professor Snape." she saw Al start from her side. "Can you tell me where she is?"  
"I'm afraid we can't Miss Hautly but we can tell you she won't be back till tomorrow." she looked at the neighbour and saw him smiling kindly as always.  
"Thank you Professor Dumbledore, we'll be going then." Caly, Scor and Rose turned to leave but Al was routed to the spot, staring at his namesakes.  
"Al." Rose hissed come on but Scor silenced her with a look. Both professors Snape and Dumbledore found this very amusing.

"Tell me what is your name, young man." Dumbledore said. "I imagine you are named after people after all your brother is James Sirius and he certainly seems to be making them proud."

"I…my name is Albus Severus Potter, sir." Dumbledore's eyes widened in surprise and a couple of tears welled in his eyes.  
"I must thank him, next time I see him." Snape looked down right confused.  
"Is this some sort of joke?"  
"Joke, sir?"  
"Why would Potter name his son after me?"  
"The eyes Severus look at the eyes." said Dumbledore gently. "Lily's-"  
"Yes I know! But I can't see what would possess him to name his son after me."

"He said you were the bravest man he ever knew." said Al. "He told me so on the platform." Snape's eyes grew wide. "And I agree with him. I heard your story, you were braver than anyone. James used to make fun of me because he said I was named after a death eater but I'm proud of my name. I think it's better than his. The people he was named after pulled jokes and didn't really achieve much but _**I**_ was named after the greatest wizard ever and the bravest man my father knew." With that he turned and walked out of the office. Caly, Rose and Scor exchanged a look and followed him.

Al was quiet for the rest of the day. He did his homework in silence and just nodded when they said they were going to go back tomorrow. Al seemed to be doing some deep, personal thinking and so they left him to it. The only thing that made him look up and interrupt his thought was the sight of James snogging a girl in his year. Even then he just pulled a face and walked off. As they played exploding snap Caly thought about names. It seemed no matter where you went your name was important. Al, Rose and Scor were proof of that. Their surnames haunted them wherever they went. Al's first name, too, made him stand out. He was named after two famous war heroes. How was he supposed to live up all that?

Next morning they decided they would see McGonagall straight after breakfast because the letter might give them clues as to who was taken. When Fawkes came Caly dropped her toast and eagerly took the letter from his beak. Ripping it open what she read made her heart sink.

_If you tell anyone besides your little friends Albus Severus, Rose Nymphadora Weasley and Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy we will kill the captive and take another. We know you went to see McGonagall yesterday, did you really think it would be that easy? Do you really think it was a coincidence she was out of her office? We know everything that goes in Hogwarts. Tell a soul and they will die. _

"Oh crap." she said as it burst into flame.  
"What?"  
"We can't see McGonagall."  
"But we agreed."  
"I know but the note said they'd kill their hostage and take another. We can't tell."  
"What are we going to do then?"  
"I don't-"  
"Miss Hautly." Caly froze recognising the stiff voice of Professor McGonagall. She turned around slowly.

"Yes Professor."  
"I hear you were in my office yesterday, looking for me. If no one answers the door you do not go in, do I make myself clear."  
"Yes Professor."  
"What did you want?" Caly paused, wondering whether to tell, but she couldn't someone's life was at stake.

"I wanted to….know you'd made any progress on finding the attacker or on how to use my powers." Professor McGonagall's face softened. "Yes of course, it must be very hard for you. I am afraid no progress has been made in either field I will keep you informed though." She walked away rather stiffly. Caly turned back to her friends.

"Brilliant lie." said Scor.  
"Yeah I don't think I'd have come up with one that fast."  
"Yeah." she said miserably. She glanced down at her plate where the letter had been. She sighed, her first year wasn't going at all liked she'd hoped.


	15. Exams and the Quidditch Cup Final

Exams and the Quidditch Cup Final

By the time the end of May came the school was buzzing. There were high expectations for this years Quidditch cup final that would take place the first weekend of June, this was the week of the exams. The Easter holidays had been spent starting to revise everything. Caly didn't doubt she would do badly because she couldn't produce so much as a spark. However she figured the good marks she would get in Potions and Herbology might make up for it as long as she revised hard for the written part and did well in that. It was slightly frightening, knowing that she would have to pass these exams to move onto the next year.

However the prospect of the Quidditch final just after that brightened the clouds. Better still Gryffindor were in the final! Al had pulled off a spectacular catch that saw him catch the snitch before a single pass had been made. It was the fastest catch in Hogwarts history and made him even more of a hero. Gryffindor actually went into the final against Ravenclaw in the lead on 350 just 10 points ahead of Ravenclaw. Gryffindor had warmed right back up to their Quidditch captain after she had shown she could put aside her feelings for the sake of the team. Her, Olive and Fred still didn't speak properly but they flew together seamlessly.

Caly and her friends were the only first years really stressed out. They had several things on their minds; firstly the exams. Scor and Rose were taking them really seriously and were in competition with each other. Then there was the Quidditch final, whenever Maise could take a break from her crazy revision schedule she would order practice. Maise was in her 5th year meaning she was taking her O.W.L.s- Ordinary Wizarding Levels or OWLs. They were very important, and Caly realised they were the wizarding equivalent to GCSE's except you took them a year earlier. This stress didn't fall directly on her but she had to keep her friends calm, eating and sleeping. She had to keep them under control.

The last pressure was the one that was really causing them to crack. Scor had not heard from his mother since Easter. He had sent her a letter saying he was staying and he never got a reply. He had sent many letters and even a Howler but he got no response. The fact she wasn't writing wasn't so big a surprise because she had been writing less and less since the beginning of March. The thing that really got the four of them was the possibility that she was the one that had been kidnapped by the letter sender. Caly didn't like to admit that she was almost certainly the one that had been kidnapped because she fitted the criteria perfectly and she wasn't noticed like if it were a Weasley/Potter. They were trying to work out whether telling the authorities that they thought she was missing would get her killed if they didn't mention the letters.

In the end they didn't have to. Astoria Malfoy's neighbour, who was a muggle, complained to the council that the house smelt of rotting. When the policemen went inside they found the food was rotting. The Magical Law Enforcement squad got there shortly after and had obliviated the policemen who saw the moving pictures. It seemed she hadn't been in the house for a month, there was no way of knowing whether she had been taken by force or had gone willingly. Scor had been pulled out of lessons for a few days after this. It confirmed their opinions that she had indeed been kidnapped and was being held hostage. Unfortunately knowing this didn't help in the slightest. Rose reckoned there would come a time when the attacker would call for her to give it over in exchange for Mrs Malfoy's life. Caly had to agree that that sounded likely so now all they could do was wait.

When the week of the exams dawned Caly was severely depressed by the excellent weather. The blue cloudless sky mocked her as she lined up outside Professor Hardingly's classroom for their Transfiguration practical exam. Caly avoided professor Hardingly as though he were a leper ever since she had found him in the classroom with Professor Overy. She avoided Overy, too, but Hadingly really gave her the creeps. It was like he could see into her mind and to an extent she knew he can but even when he wasn't it still felt like that. She was always uncomfortable in his presence.

She didn't bother practicing the movements and the words like the rest of the class was doing because she knew she was going to fail. There was absolutely no way she was going to do well. It just couldn't happen. So it was with a heavy heart that she entered the transfiguration class and drew her wand, standing before the professor expectantly. He placed a matchstick in front of her and smiled in a kind way. This surprised her. She had never seen him smile at anyone other than Rose. But then again she had always tried to refrain from looking into his face after the incident.

"I am asking most of my students to transfigure quills into goblets but I think it would better if you tried this." She looked at the matchstick on her desk and she knew she need to turn it into a needle. Caly was surprised to find her face wasn't burning with embarrassment instead she understood he was trying to be kind. "Have faith in your ability." He sat down and smiled again. "Whenever you are ready." Caly took a deep breath and tried to feel the way she had the two other times she had done magic. She said the incantation and did the wand movement and for a moment nothing happened then the matchstick turned silver and pointy. She picked it up and realised it was still made of wood but felt proud by her achievements. Professor Hardingly was smiling at her and actually applauded her quietly.

"Excellent. Excellent. See all you need is a bit of faith." She pocketed her wand and left thoughtfully.

The other exams were all pretty good. The written papers were all quite simple if you'd done the revision, which she had. The only one she had trouble with was History of Magic because she kept confusing all the names and dates of the goblin revolutions and rebellions. She was pretty sure that she had written the last question the wrong way round and had been describing the revolution instead of the rebellion except that she was sure that she had added a couple of the rebellion goblins in because they were all so similar. They were all something the something, the last something was usually quite unflattering like the bloodthirsty or the beheader or the axe wheeling maniac as she had wrote for one of them. That was definitely wrong but she had always wanted to write something random like that in an exam and that had been the perfect opportunity.

In her two other practical magic exams she took Professor Hardingly's words to heart with great results. In Charms Professor Flitwick asked her to levitate a book and move it in circles. She hadn't been able to life the book very high and the circles were incredibly small but it was definitely progress and little Professor Flitwick nearly fell of his stack of books with surprise but applauded her when the book fell after a minute. The Defence Against the Dark Arts exam went similarly well. The practical part was split in two. The first part was deal with a hinkypunk and the second disarm Professor Longbottom. The hinkypunk part was easy for Caly because she was as good with animals as she was with plants and the disarming also went well because she did shoot a jet of red light at his wand, however weak, and the wand dropped out of his hand and onto the floor. Again it was nowhere near as good as Al's would be but it was so much better than ever.

On Friday when she had completed her last exam, the theory of Charms paper, she decided to see Professor Hardingly and thank her for what he said in her exam because it had really helped. Ever since she had been slowly improving and she owed it to him. She still wasn't entirely comfortable in his presence like she was in Professors Longbottom's or Sprout's or Slughorn's but she did think she owed him a thank you. She definitely owed him a thank you. Of course she hadn't got her results yet, they wouldn't get them till the last week of term but she knew she had done much better than she would've.

When she reached his office door she heard a muffled voices that were rising in dynamic. "I will not!" A man cried. "I will not!""You may not have a choice." she recognised both voices, the first she couldn't place but the second was Professor Hardingly's.  
"I didn't have one either."  
"But you and he, you and he."  
"Calm down man. Everything will be fine. Don't worry but if it happens don't say I didn't warn you." The door flew open and a man stormed out. He didn't notice Caly but when Professor Hardingly looked out he saw her.

"Oh, hello Miss Hautly. Is there anything I can do for you?" He wasn't smiling like he had done on Monday but then it seemed he had just had a row with someone.

"Er…yeah I wanted to thank you for what you said in my exam it really helped with my magic, so thanks."

"What? Wait a second." he retreated into his office leaving Caly slightly puzzled. A few second later he reappeared holding a cup of tea smiling brightly. "Sorry, kettle boiled. It's my pleasure, Miss Hautly. It is my job after all, I wouldn't be a very good teacher if I didn't help my pupils."

"No." she said. She was very confused. "Er, Professor can I ask you something?"  
"Fire away."  
"Why did you change your tie?" he froze then slammed the door in Caly's face. Utterly perplexed Caly turned to walk back to Gryffindor tower. What the hell was up with the Professor? Maybe he had that weird mental illness that meant you flipped personalities or something like that? Was that another secret she had to keep because the more she thought about the conversation the more she thought she knew who the man was. She was pretty sure that it was the Arithmancy Professor. What was going on with the Professors? Honestly, she thought they were probably as bad as the students. Only yesterday there had been some massive catfight in the Gryffindor common room between six or seven girls because James was snogging them all at the same time, well not literally at the same time but he was cheating on them with each other. It was really weird because James may only be 12 but he was the biggest playboy in the school. It really irritated Al.

When she came back she found Rose reading and Scor and Al playing wizard chess. After observing the game she realised Al need the help the most. Scor was close to checkmate and was crushing Al with his 'superior intellect'. She squatted next to Al and examined the board trying to find the move that would even the playing field. She spotted it at once. One of Al's knights was just sitting unused at the side of the board and he hadn't noticed it could take Scor's queen. Al still had his queen but Scor would still have more men so that made it about even, if played well. She muttered the move in Al's ear and sat back to enjoy the effects. For a couple of minutes it seemed to hang in the balance but a couple of swift moves and it was all over. Al shrugged because Maise had stood and ordered the team to bed. Bidding her goodnight they all left for bed.

She glanced around the common room for someone to talk with and saw James with the Scarmanders. She walked over and plopped herself down next to him. They got on really well because they had a habit of going to Slughorn's dinner parties together, the only downside was that it encouraged Slughorn's insane theory. As she neared him she noticed that he looked pretty depressed, there were several cuts on his cheeks, his lip was split and he had black eyes.

"James." he jumped when he heard her and his hand flew to his wand. He relaxed visibly when he realised it was only her. "What happened to you?"

"The cuts were from some Mindy Fawcett, she's in my year and she was my first girlfriend and the bruises are from the older brothers of most of my other girlfriends.""Does it hurt?"  
"Yes."  
"Why haven't you gone to Madam Pomfrey."  
"I can't Neville found out and banned me as punishment." Caly didn't really like what James did, but on the other hand she was James' friend and she felt sorry for him.  
"Well I could help you."  
"What?"  
"I could brew some cures for you."  
"Would you?" James sat up all excited.  
"Yeah. I need to get some things from upstairs but Slughorn gave me a private dungeon, so yeah."  
"Alright." he said jumping to his feet then wincing "I'll get the map."

She hurried up to her dormitory. Careful not to wake Rose she extracted her lighter and knife, she kept the key with the one for her guitar case around her neck. She hurried back down and met James at the bottom of the stairs in the common room, it was quite late and curfew was in half an hour so they would need the map to avoid getting into trouble and get back without getting lost.

The journey down to dungeon 10 was uneventful. They didn't meet a soul, living or departed and they got there in just five minutes thanks to James' map. When they were inside she lit the lamps and told James he could sit on the cabinet. She then asked him what hurt the most. When James replied his ribs she flicked through the many potions books until she found the right method. She immediately made the obvious corrections and several more as she went along. The process had become instinctive to her now. It took her 20 minutes and the moment James drunk it he said he felt better. The other potion for cuts and bruises she'd already made and took about 10. James looked a hell of a lot better when they'd finished and was almost back to his old self. They made it back to the empty common room without being caught though it had been close; they'd nearly run into Peeves, Filch and Professor Longbottom.

The next day saw her friends on the edge, Al could barely eat and the little Rose was eating wasn't much better. Scor was doing alright because he was playing reserve. James and Caly had to stand over them to make sure they ate but the little colour they had gained vanished when Professor Longbottom came over and informed them that their family was here. Caly really thought Al was going to faint. She followed the three of them down to the changing rooms and wished them luck and turned towards the Gryffindor stands but James grabbed her arm and marched her off to another stand that was for visitors.  
"Where are you taking me?"  
"You are coming to sit with my family. They have some of the best seats." Resigned to being pulled along by James she followed him without resistance.

"James!" James was nearly knocked backwards into Caly when a little girl with red hair threw herself at him.  
"Hey Lils." He ruffled her hair. "Hey mum, dad I brought Al and Rosie's best friend Caly." Mr Potter looked over and smiled at her.  
"Oh hello again."  
"Hey."

"Caly this is my incredibly large family. You've met my dad, so there's my mum and my little sister, Lily. Then Uncle Ron, Aunt Hermione and Hugo, they're Rose's family, Uncle Bill, Aunt Fleur and Louis, they feel obliged to support Raven claw 'cause that's where Vic and Dom are, then Uncle George and Aunt Angelina, Roxie and Fred's parents, Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey and Lucy are supporting both because Molly is in Hufflepuff and my grandparents. My Uncle Charlie couldn't be here because he works in Romania." She smiled at them and waved. Soon after Vic, Dom and Molly turned up and they took their seats ready to start.

"HELLO HOGWARTS AND WELCOME TO THE 2016 QUIDDITCH FINAL. THE COMPETITORS GRYFFINDOR AND RAVENCLAW. THE ODDS ARE EVEN AS GRYFFINDOR HAVE WON MORE TIMES THAN ANY OTHER HOUSE." Lot's of cheering from the red and gold mass. "BUT RAVENCLAW FLATTENED GRYFFINDOR IN THEIR PREVIOUS MATCH THIS SEASON." Cheering from the blue and bronze supporters. "SO THE RAVENCLAW TEAM CAPTAIN AND SEEKER CORNER, CHASERS GOLDSTEIN, TIREL AND HART, TWIN BEATERS DOEN AND DOEN AND KEEPER DOART. SUBS KEEPER HOWN, BEATER STUART, CHASER DOART AND SEEKER CORNER. THE GRYFFINDOR TEAM CAPTAIN AND CHASER JORDAN, CHASERS WEASLEY AND MADON, BEATERS WEASLEY AND WEASLEY, KEEPER WOOD AND SEEKER POTTER. SUBS KEEPER WOOD, BEATER CREEVY, SEEKER MADON AND CHASER MALFOY." Caly was the only one in the box she was in that cheered Scor's name. She watched as the Daniel and Maise shook hands, Madam Hooch took out the quaffle threw it in the air and

"What did I miss?" All their heads turned to see a young man with blue hair but a Gryffindor scarf around his neck enter the stands.

"Teddy!" Vic flung herself at him and they began saying an entirely non-verbal hello. Bill coughed pointedly whilst all the kids cracked up.

"Oh hello all." Teddy didn't look in the least bit fazed. He glanced around and then spotted Caly. "Who are you?"  
"I'm Caly, I'm Al and Rose's friend."  
"I'm Teddy, honorary member of this family."  
"Speaking of Al and Rose we ought to be watching the game." said Mrs Potter. They all turned back at once and listened to Nick's commentary.

"SO IT'S 30-0 TO GRYFFINDOR BECAUSE WOOD HAS PULLED OFF SOME AWSOME SAVES, THEY CLEARLY TAKE AFTER THEIR FATHER. NOW MADON PASSES TO WEASLEY TO JORDAN TO MADON TO WEASLEY BACK TO-NO INTERCEPTED BY TIREL. SO TIREL TO HART TO GOLDSTEIN WHO SHOOTS AND. WHAT A SAVE! BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT! SO GRYFFINDOR BACK IN POSSESION, OHHH MADON TAKES A BLUDGER FROM AARON DOEN. SHE'S DROPPED THE QUAFFLE SO GOLDSTEIN TO TIREL, WEASLEY INTERCEPTS TO JORDAN TO WEASLEY TO JORDAN TO WEASLEY AND I THINK SOMETHING'S HAPPENED TO MADON BECAUSE SHE IS OUT OF IT."

Caly squinted down at the pitch and saw that Olive was just hanging there in mid air.

"What's happened to her?" she asked James who shrugged.

"Mum." he turned around "Aunt Angelina what's happened to her?" Ginny and Angelina glanced at each, both had been professional chasers, in fact they had both played together at the Harpies. However they had never seen anything like this.

"I'm not sure, James." Mrs Potter looked very worried and Lily looked very upset.

"OH MY GOD SOMEONE BETTER GET HER OFF THAT BROOM!" Their attention was once more averted to Olive whose broom was starting to burn. Caly froze, she felt like ice was going through her body, those flames weren't leaving any ash, it was all consuming like the letter. She could see both Al and Rose, frozen and she knew, even from this distance they were thinking the same thing. No one could move, even the Ravenclaw players seemed shocked into inactivity. Then there was a shout from below. The voice of an 11 year old ripped through the air.

"AGUMENTI!" Scor was standing there pointing his wand at her broom. A jet of water shot from the end and hit the flames, they died but he hadn't been fast enough. Olive was falling and Scor was still the only person who could think. He ran forwards and shouted the only other spell that came to mind.

"WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!" Everyone watched as Scorpius levitated her body down to the ground. The moment it touched the ground he heaved it over the shelter and left her with Jay, Colin and her sister then he mounted his broom and kicked off.

Suddenly the game began again. Everyone seemed to be able to breath think and move. The staff rushed down to look at Olive. Nick was shouting praises at Scor but Caly doubted he heard because he was playing at such speed with Roxie and Maise. Caly turned to James who looked stunned.  
"Do you reckon someone's got it in for the Madon's?" James cocked his head thinking about it.  
"It would seem so." he said in a worried tone. "But the teachers will have noticed I mean it's too big of a coincidence, right?" Caly shrugged about to answer when James' dad interrupted.  
"What do you mean by 'someone's got it in for the Madon's' and 'it's too big a coincidence." Caly turned and pushed back the hair that had come free from her plait.  
"Well you know Al made that spectacular catch in the first match, he only did it because someone shoved Nikki off her broom."  
"Yeah but we know it was MacDougal or Finch-Fletchly, I can't remember which."  
"Actually I don't know which either."  
"Hey Molly." James called. "Which of your beaters knocked Nikki off her broom." Molly furrowed her brow.  
"I don't know."  
"Oh c'mon Molly, you're friends with MacDougal, you must know if he got three months worth of detention."  
"No one got three months worth of detention, not in Hufflepuff." Caly and James looked at each other confused.

"But Olive said that the beater had been given three months detention." James' dad coughed as if to remind them that they were supposed to be explaining the 'coincidence'.

"Yeah, that's weird. You just heard our conversation, but Nikki fell a long way at quite a high speed, she could've died and Olive definitely nearly died if Scor hadn't have kept his head." Harry Potter nodded and said nothing, he just watched his son, two nieces and nephew play Quidditch.

The game went on for hours. She was beginning to get tired from standing up every time Gryffindor scored, which was often and she was loosing her voice from all the screaming. Lunch had been eaten up in the stands and she kept a sharp eye on Al, Scor and Rose to make sure they weren't tiring. Nick was nearly hoarse for talking non-stop for hours but due to the charm his hoarse voice still echoed around the stadium.

"SO IT'S 590-470 TO GRYFFINDOR AND THIS IS DEFINITLY TURNING OUT TO BE ONE OF THE LONGEST GAMES WE'VE HAD IN A WHILE. SO MALFOY PASSES TO WEASLEY TO JORDAN WHO PASSES TO MALFOY WHO DOES AN EXCELLENT BACK PASS TO WEASLEY. BOY I NEVER KNEW HE COULD FLY. OH, WHAT A DODGE. I THOUGHT HE WAS GOING TO GET HIT THEN BUT HE'S STILL GOT THE QUAFFLE AND HE SHOOTS AND SCORES! ANOTHER GOAL FOR MR MALFOY, WHO PROBABLY HOLDS THE TITLE OF LEAST POPULAR GRYFFINDOR PLAYER EVER NO LONGER AFTER THIS PERFORMANCE. AND ANOTHER GOOD PASS TO-IS THAT THE SNITCH!"

Al had gone into a spectacular dive. The entire school rose as one, all previous tiredness forgotten. The school screamed one of the seekers on. Al had the lead but Daniel had more experience, also with the strongish winds Daniel was staying on course better. Al was flying so low he was practically touching the grass. Then a bludger came flying from above and smashed down on his back. Al's yell of pain rose above the cheering causing everyone to quieten. James had buried his head in head in his hands, unable to watch. Daniel and Al were level as the bludger, with Rose chasing after it, came back for more. This time Al saw it. He threw himself off his broom right arm extended as it smashed into it. He flopped onto the ground. Caly knew his back and arm were both broken. There was moment when everyone watched Al, then he raised his left arm and everyone saw the glint of gold.

Gryffindors went wild. The block of crimson and gold erupted in cheering and shouting. Nick was shouting the score at the top of his voice; 750-470. Gryffindor had won. She saw Fred, Maise, Roxie and Kay had were all hugging in mid air. Scor and Rose had collided and were hugging each other tightly. She heard someone chuckle behind her. She turned and saw Mr Potter laughing at the expression on Rose's father's face as he watched Scor and Rose descend to the ground where Al lay.

"James! James! We won!" she was shouting at the top of her voice. "It's okay you can look now!" He looked over and grinned weakly.

"Oh my god Al." he moaned and he was off down the stairs, quickly followed by Caly and the rest of the family. They ran across the pitch, past the sad Ravenclaw's to where Al lay. He was surrounded by the Quidditch team. Scor was kneeling next to him white faced and shaken. All the happiness had drained from the surroundings as they stood and looked at Al. Maise and Roxie's tears had changed from one's of joy to worry. Lily and Lucy buried their heads in their mothers chests, scared. James collapsed down on his other side as Caly asked the question they were all thinking.

"Can wizards cure paraplegia?" There was a tense pause then.

"Of course we can." It was Madam Pomfrey bustling over looking very agitated. "Quidditch" she muttered "I've already got one unconscious girl and her sister also took a nasty fall, different game, of course, but it still remains. Far too dangerous." They all waited then. "He'll be fine once I get him up to the castle."  
"But he needs to lift the cup, him and Malfoy." Maise said chokingly. It was then they noticed Professor McGonagall holding the cup, approaching them.  
"Maise." Scor said gently but deadly serious at the same time. "_**You're **_the captain, _**you **_lift the cup, we're _**you're**_ team. It's _**yours. **_We just need to get Al up to the castle." But Maise shook her head.

"We wouldn't have won this cup without you. Al made that catch because you were the only one who believed he could make it. You told him to go faster so he did. The second, I should have played both of you, we could've won if I had. This game you saved Olive's life and you proved to be a better chaser and Al made the most amazing catch. I should have put you both on the first team to start with." Scor shook his head.

"Could've, should've, would've it's your victory Maise. You're the one who rallied us all back together when we fell apart after Ravenclaw. You lift the trophy. We're a team we wouldn't have won without any of us but the one who represents the team is the captain."

"Scor.." a croaked voice came from the floor.  
"Al! You're awake!"  
"I got it! The snitch! We won!"

"I know, but you're really badly hurt, you've broken you're back and arm."  
"Oh that's why it hurts."  
"Yes."  
"Why am I awake then?"  
"Because I want you and Scor to lift the trophy."  
"But you're the captain it's your moment in the sun."

"I'm the captain and my decision is final. You two lift the cup." Scor put an arm around Al and hauled him to his feet. He then had to hold him up because he had no feeling in his legs. He transferred the snitch to his broken hand and together they lifted the Quidditch cup into the air. Everyone in the stands went wild. Maise and Roxie were in tears of joy again, Fred, Kay, Jay and Colin were basking in the attention and Rose held up the other side of Al whilst he and Scor showed Gryffindor the Quidditch cup once more.


	16. Date, Time, Place

Date, Time, Place

Al spent a week in the hospital wing after the Quidditch final but he was by no means lonely. For one Olive occupied the bed next to him. No one was quite sure what had happened to her but she was still confused but it was found that if someone constantly talked to her she began to remember better. This being Nikki spent all her available time in the hospital wing talking to her and Al had someone to talk to in the day. Rose, Scor and Caly also spent all their available time in the hospital wing, though their visit were considerably less cheerful because there was no news on the hunt for Scor's mum and the letters were hinting that the time for them to meet again was drawing near. Unfortunately they couldn't discuss this very much because the hospital wing, and Al's bed, was often filled with other people. Al's family came by every day. Caly knew both Fred and Rose felt guilty for allowing him to be hit by the bludger.

When Al came down for breakfast the Saturday after the Quidditch final he was greeted by a standing ovation from the Gryffindors. He turned red and buried himself in his breakfast. Al hated the attention he gained from being Harry Potter's son, or attention at all. He was pleased they'd won the cup but the after effect of having a load of crazy fan-girls storm the hospital wing to see him did not please him at all. Scor was the one who really enjoyed the after effects because the Gryffindors had accepted him as one of their own. They'd seen his actions on the Quidditch pitch and come to the conclusion he was not a bit like his father.

That breakfast Fawkes arrived with her letter per usual and when she read it she felt her heart jump to her mouth.

_Tonight, 10 pm, dungeon 6. _It burst into flames.

"Guys." she said bending forward. "Tonight 10pm in dungeon 6 and I still haven't remembered what it is!"  
"I don't think it will matter." said Rose "They'll probably tell you." Scor was very pale.  
"Do you think mother will be there?"  
"Probably."  
"We're all going, right?" said Al. Caly glanced around.  
"I guess. They know you know so I don't think it will hurt. Besides I could really use someone who could do magic, especially if they're the joint top in our year and the top of Defence Against the Dark Arts." Rose, Al and Scor looked pleased with that, especially Scor who wanted to find the people who they thought had taken his mother.

Once they were done they walked out into the grounds to get away from the main population of the school. It was hard when you were with three members of the beloved Quidditch team but they eventually shook them off by going round the back of the castle away from the sun. They sat on the grass and started to make plans for tonight.

"Are we definitely going to hand it over?" asked Rose "What if it's really dangerous."  
"We need to free Scors mother." said Caly definitely. Scor nodded along with her.  
"Er guys two problems, one have they ever said that they would trade Scor's mum for what ever it is, and are you honestly going to trust them?" Caly bit her lip and glanced at the other two.  
"We don't have a choice, Al. We have a chance to save her and we have to take it."  
"What if you haven't brought?"  
"I doubt that will be the case."  
"What makes you say that?" asked Rose curiously.  
"Well they thought I would have it out in the grounds so it must be something I might carry with me regularly." Al sighed but continued to look worried.

"You do realise you're playing right into their hands don't you?"  
"Yes. I'm doing exactly what they want, I'm coming to rescue her but I don't have another option. We don't have another option. They know what goes on around here."

"Do you think that it's a student or a teacher then?" Caly paused.  
"I guess that's possible, I mean, maybe the Madon's have something to do with it."  
"How?"  
"I have no idea."

"Do think we'll get out alive?" Caly shrugged  
"Your dad did Al and he was always on his own."  
"We're not my dad, though."  
"Yeah but you're could easily be as good as him."  
"But he's the chosen one, or he was."  
"Al, being the chosen one didn't give him any special powers, not from what you said. He got by on love, luck and skill. We've got all those things. Being the chosen one just gave your dad a destiny he couldn't avoid."  
"You think that?"  
"Yeah, I mean that's what your description of events sounded like."

"Maybe but I don't think we're cut out for this."  
"We're not, but think about this Al. When do you play your best Quidditch?"  
"What do you mean?"  
"When do you play at your best?" He thought for a minute

"When everyone is watching me."  
"Exactly. You guys all work well really well under pressure, and there's no doubt we'll be under pressure in the dungeon so I think you'll be okay. Well as okay as you can be." Al pondered over this, then nodded.

"Alright but I'm freaking out a bit."  
"We all are, Al." said Scor "I mean my mother is down there, or will be."

The rest of the day saw the four friends at a loss for anything to do, their nerves were so extreme. Rose and Scor had taken to pouring through advanced textbooks on magic whilst Caly tried to improve Al's game of wizards chess but they just couldn't sit still. Caly even brought out her guitar to try and while away the hours but it didn't work. Not even when she had the whole common room singing old muggle music could the daunting task off this evening be lifted from her mind. She did however know that whatever happened after tonight she would remember this year as the most insane of her life. She had become a witch, she had gone to a school of magic, watched sports played 50 ft in the air on brooms, brewed her own potions, failed at magical spells and made friends with a load of insane people. She had wholly decided that, of the ones she had met there was not a sane Weasley/Potter.

In the evening at eight o clock they decided it would be best to leave the common room and hide in a classroom as the common room didn't empty at 10 and they would be seen leaving. Just before they left Caly remembered something.

"Hey you guys don't happen to have any felix felicis left do you." Scor and Al shook their heads but Rose said

"I might have a bit." She hurried off to their dorm and returned with the little bottle. There wasn't much left. Caly took it and reckoned there was enough for 10 drops each. They took it and left the common room.

It was brilliant to walk through the hallways without a care in the world. The felix felicis gave them a feeling of utter confidence. There was no way they could be caught. It would be easy, they'd get in, get Scor's mother and find a way out. There was nothing hard at all. When Professor Longbottom came their way he simply turned and walked back, as if suddenly remembering something very important.

They slipped into their potions classroom and all found something to do to pass the two hours there. Al and Scor both found books Slughorn had been sent on Quidditch, Caly found one on very complex experimental potions that was fascinating and Rose picked up a slightly simpler potions book, but it was about O.W.L. level. The felix felicis made the two hours pass like two minutes but as they came to an end Caly felt a lurch of worry in her stomach. The potion was wearing off. She snapped closed her book and turned to look at the other three who seemed to have realised the same thing.

"We took it too early." whispered Rose. Caly closed her eyes. How could she be so stupid?  
"What do we do?" She opened her eyes and saw that Rose, Al and Scor were looking at her for answers, for support.  
"We don't have any choice. We have to go and try." Scor nodded.  
"My mother." He didn't seem to be able to add anything else to that statement but it wasn't needed. They all knew the consequences. "Let's go." said Al.

They crossed to the door and were creeping across to dungeon six when they heard footsteps, unsure who it was, Al pushed Scor and Caly behind a statue, deciding to take the risk of being the son and daughter of war heroes.  
"Al, Rose." It was Professor Longbottom

"Unc-I mean Professor." said Al, shifting from foot to foot. Rose bit her lip and twisted her curls.  
"What are you doing?"  
"Er-" said Rose unable to think of a good lie "We were… well, you see, we wanted to…"

"We wanted to live up to our family." lied Al quickly. "We heard about all the things they did, they do. James may be unpopular at the moment but when he pulls a funny prank everyone will love him again." Al said all of this in a rush "And he breaks rules all the time but no one hates him not even McGonagall. It's the same with Freddie. And everyone else in our family is so special and unique, Molly may seem boring but she's in _Hufflepuff_ that makes her so different. Me and Rose we're just two chips off the old block, nothing we do is good because someone's already done it before." Rose tried not to look surprised at what Al was saying, like she'd heard this all before, because this was all news to her. "And well are friends are so much better than us." Caly and Scor looked at each other, trying not to feel guilty. "Caly's just so understanding, she's had some sort of crap up bringing that means she just so damn sympathetic, she's so kind and everyone loves her and Scor, well, Scor's changing the world isn't he. A Gryffindor Malfoy, one that's on the Quidditch team, one that saved the life of a girl he doesn't know. He's changing everything anyone ever thought they knew about the Malfoy's and us we're just carbon copies of our parents. Rose, she's a good Quidditch player, and yeah she's a beater and that's different but all the Weasley's play Quidditch, she's got red hair and she's as smart as her mum, nothing original. Me, I'm worse. I'm exactly like my dad but without the destiny, without what made him special." Professor Longbottom gazed at Al for a long time.

"I know how hard it is to grow up with the expectations of being your parents on your back, especially as your parents are great people. Therefore I will not punish you today." Al and Rose both sighed. "However if I find you out of bounds again, you will not be so lucky." They both nodded. "Come along. Let's get you back to the tower."

Caly and Scor let Al and Rose go and then paused it was 5 past 10 did they go on or did they go back? She glanced at Scor, she could see the worry, the guilt and the sheer determination to save the only family he had left. Caly didn't need to ask where they were going. They just turned and crept down the corridor towards dungeon 6. Both of them drew their wands as they reached the door. Caly reached for the handle and tried it. It wouldn't budge.

'It's locked!" she mouthed at Scor. Scor moved her aside and pointed his wand at the key hole.  
"Alohomora." he hissed. There was a loud bang and they were thrown against the wall.  
"What the-" Caly started the ask as she got to her feet but they were interrupted by  
"PEEVES!"  
"Filch!" Filch was the extremely old and bitter care taker of Hogwarts. He hated the students and Peeves the poltergeist. They ran off, not wanting to be caught out of bed by him, it would have been much better to have been found by Professor Longbottom.

The fact that Scor was a Quidditch player came in very handy on their flight back to Gryffindor tower. He was constantly hearing teachers, students, he even pre empted the appearance of Nearly Headless Nick once. He pulled himself and Caly into alcoves, behind suits of armour and into empty classrooms. They had Filch on their tails, who was convinced they were Peeves. They were also running away from his very old but surprising and very annoyingly agile cat, Mrs Norris. Caly was pretty sure she should be dead and that Filch was using some sort of potion on her, there were some that pre-long life, not the elixir of life per se but they could extend life for a little bit.

"Nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak!" Scor gasped and was rewarded by a dozy fat lady swinging forward. Rose and Al both looked up in shock when they saw them. They ran across to them, looking worried.

"What's happened?"  
"Were we too late?" Scor shrugged looking deflated.  
"What's happened?" Al repeated.  
"Well after you got taken away by Professor Longbottom, we decided to go on."  
"Naturally." said Rose.  
"We went to the door and it was locked."  
"Well why didn't you just use alohomora." said Rose exasperatedly, like she was talking to a very slow two year old  
"Oh shut up Rose, of course we used alohomora, you're talking to the person that did a perfect sixth year charm earlier this month. Maybe if you kept your fat mouth shut we could finish the story." Rose opened her mouth to reply but Al stepped in.  
"Shut up both of you and keep your voices down. Caly continue."  
"Well Scor used alohomora and there was a bang and we were knocked against the wall. Then Filch came, he thought we were Peeves and so we were chased back to the Tower, we never made it in."

Caly bit her lip and watched Scor's profile. His head was bent and his usual confidence and self assurance was gone. He seemed to have lost himself in thought, he gazed into the fire as if hypnotized by the slowly dancing flames. Maybe the gently crackling flames helped to sooth his pounding heart. Caly knew that he was blaming himself. If his mother was dead, it was his fault. That wasn't true but that was what was going on inside his head.

"My mother used light fires in all the rooms in Malfoy Manor." Scor was talking to his lap. His friends quirked their heads and listened, Scor never talked about his personal life. "Whenever there was something wrong she'd go light all the fires so that it wouldn't be dark. She always told me that all I'd need to do is light a fire and I'd be home. She had hope, my father gave up on people changing their attitudes to us but not my mother. She told look into the fire it was hope. It banished the dark in my house, all those rooms where _**he **_had been and it solved it because the fire gave light. There's always hope, it was my mother's motto on life, there's always a chance, no matter how small, how crazy, how wild, there is always hope. My mother isn't dead, not yet." He looked his friends in the eyes. "She isn't dead, we'll find her."

"So what do we do?" asked Al, the concern making his green eyes shine unnaturally bright. Caly and Scor looked at each other  
"Wait."

The wait for the next letter lasted a week, a week of in which the attention spans of the four students dropped to an all time low. Instead of taking notes in class Al and Caly would sit and play hangman or noughts and crosses on their pieces of parchments. Rose and Scor, who were in constant competition, stopped putting their hands up to answer the questions and instead sat staring at the Professor with a glazed look. The staff put this down to the little night time excursion Al and Rose had taken, it had been well circulated amongst them, it had had been assumed that Caly and Scor had been informed of this and were now distracted by their friends views on them. At least that was what they hoped, anyway. They didn't honestly know, how could they?

Al and Rose had both received long letters from their parents on the matter telling them that they were, in fact, very special and unique and there was nothing wrong with looking and being like their parents. Gryffindor had lost 40 points because of it, because Professor Longbottom had accidentally told McGonagall who had felt it her job to take off points but no one thought that was too big of a deal either, though it did depress Al and Rose for a few days. Al's dad had also promised Al a big surprise for the weekend that would surely cheer him up.

When Saturday came, however, Mr Potter's surprise was not what they were all thinking about. They were all wondering whether the letter sender would contact them, once more. It had been a week and they were starting to get worried. What if they had missed their only chance to save Scor's mother? What if it was all over?

When the post arrived they scoured it for a sign of red and were rewarded with the sight of a magnificent phoenix swooping towards them. The four dropped their breakfast, hands clammy, feeling sick. Fawkes landed gracefully in front of Caly's plate just as Hedwig II, the Potter's family owl, landed in front of Al carrying a parcel. Everyone ignored Hedwig though, they were much more interested in the letter attached to Fawkes' leg. Fawkes waited patiently as Caly struggled to undo to knots with her shaking fingers. She opened the letter, read it and let it burst into flames. She petted Fakes and fed him the rest of her breakfast. Al was examining the parcel in awe.

"We need to go somewhere private."  
"Why?" asked Caly.  
"'cause that's what it says on here." Caly looked on the parcel and it read in capital letters.

_DO NOT OPEN AT THE GRYFFINDOR TABLE! _

The four leapt to their feet, abandoning their breakfast they sprinted off into a secluded part of the grounds.

"So?" asked Scor  
"Today, same time, same place." They collapsed onto the grass, when they were completely out of sight of the castle.

"What is it?" asked Caly, looking down at the slightly squishy package.  
"I'm not sure but I have a hunch." Al looked excited, he could barely contain his grin.  
"You don't think." said Rose, in a near squeal. Caly looked at Scor with a confused expression.  
"And for those of us who weren't raised in the Potter/Weasley fold this is?" Al and Rose turned to them and grinned, grins of mischief and glee.  
"You'll see."

Al tore open the package. Out of it fell something made of a silvery grey material. Al picked it up with a kind of reverence, the kind that one might give to a sacred holy artefact of monumental proportion to the faith. The material was fluid in his hands and she watched as Rose gazed in awe at it. Caly was ready to exchange another puzzled look with Scor but she was shocked to find that he, too, was staring with holy reverence and astonishment. She let them gaze at the bit of cloth for a little while longer but it got annoying and it seemed no one was in a hurry to explain it to her.

"Er hem." she said loudly. They all looked round at her, as if they had been snapped out of a trance. "What the hell is that?" Rose and Al gaped at her like when she had mispronounced the names of the houses. Scor took up the mantle of explaining.

"This is Al's dad's invisibility cloak, remember Al told us about it. It's a true cloak of invisibility." Caly's brain was beginning to recall the conversation they'd had at the start of term.

"Oh." she said, staring at the cloak. After a pause she said. "Do you think it will cover us all?"  
"I dunno, but none of us are as tall as my dad was and Caly well you're a midget." said Rose seriously.

"Hey!" shouted Caly and smacked Rose round the back of the head. This proved to be a very unwise thing to do because, although years of fighting older, stronger people had taught Caly how to fight, Rose was a beater and therefore very strong. Both boys watched in amusement as the two girls rolled around on the floor fighting in a well meaning way.

It took five minutes for Rose to finally pin Caly down so that she couldn't move a muscle. Rose let her up and they both took a potion Caly carried in her bag that dealt with minor cuts and bruises.

"Now that Rose and Caly have been kind enough to act their age." said Scor with an air of superiority "We can get on to planning tonight."  
"Planning?" asked Al  
"Yes planning." said Scor. "To say last week was a disaster would be an understatement."  
"Your fault." muttered Rose. Scor shot her a glare that shut her up.  
"We should leave at half nine."  
"Why?"  
"In case we run into teachers, we may be invisible but that won't make us ghosts, Al, we can't just walk straight through them."  
"Oh right."  
"Besides we need to get a good look at this door, I suspect there must be another way to get in, probably marked on the door, or maybe the alohomora charm only works at 10, I don't know, but either way I don't think I'm going to get another chance to rescue my mother." The other three let his words sink in. They then nodded one by one.  
"Okay." said Rose. "This your mother, I'm sorry I blamed you."  
"It's okay."

The day saw, for some reason, the four student much calmer than before. It was probably due to how hyped they had been before the first time and then in the end doing nothing had made them much calmer and they also seemed to have realised that this wasn't some great adventure, this was about saving Scor's mother from death. Death, it was something all four of them knew well.

Caly was an orphan, as far as anyone could tell, and half the children she knew from her childhood were orphans too. Kids came and went, some experienced the pain more than others, some even killed themselves. It never failed to shock her but she knew it, she was lucky she didn't actually know anyone who had died, not properly. Scor's grandparents on his fathers side had died before he'd been born. On his mother's side they had died when he was one and three, so he hadn't known them. He had had an aunt, however, who he had cared for very much who had died, two years ago. Al and Rose, well Caly thought, they were Al and Rose, they couldn't forget death, especially not Al.

Half nine came with them sneaking out of the portrait hole under the invisibility cloak when Freddie and his mates came back in. The four of them walked very slowly under the invisibility cloak. They had been right to think the four of them would fit under it because they were all quite small but they were all squashed together and Caly, in the middle, found that her friends were standing on her heels and toes. The halls were nearly deserted, but whenever they were unfortunate to meet someone it was simply a matter of keeping quiet and staying out of their way until the danger had passed.

The dungeon looked the same has it had when they had been there the week before. Al pulled the cloak off the four of them after they checked the that no one was coming and then they bent down to examine the lock. It was clear by just looking at it that 'alohomora' wouldn't just do it. There was an engraving of sorts on the door. The four of them bent down to get a closer look, Al, Rose and Scor's wands nearly touching the wood to try and illuminate the shape.

"What is it?" asked Al.  
"I think." said Scor "I think it's a wand."  
"A wand?" said Al.  
"What so we need a particular wand to get in?"  
"I don't know." Scor ran a hand through his hair.  
"It's not just any wand." Caly was the only one still looking at the etching. "It's mine." She looked at her friends with a confused frown. "Look." she said pulling out her wand before they could issue a long round of 'whats?' Caly placed it underneath the etching and the other three crowded round.

The resemblance was weirdly obvious. You wouldn't think that you would be able to accurately draw a wand on wood, it would be assumed they'd all look the same but the one on the door looked like a faded, 2D copy of her wand. It would have been some work of art had it not been the thing preventing them from entering dungeon 6 and for that reason Scor felt very much like punching the door, but he knew that wouldn't do much good.

"Do I have to open it?" Caly asked in a quavering voice  
"Yes."  
"But I can't do the spell."  
"You can." said Rose "Just remember what Professor Hardingly told you." Caly took a deep breath and tired to feel confident and good about her magic, as she had in Ollivanders, and put her wand in the lock

"Alohomora." she whispered. The lock clicked and the door swung inwards. Caly's eyes grew wide with shock. Her friends clapped her back and she grinned, proud that she'd pulled off the spell.

They entered the dungeon wands aloft and were surprised to find it completely empty. Scor checked his watch, 10:58. They were 2 minutes early. They looked around to see if there was another door, through which they would enter but couldn't see one. Dungeon 6 was completely unremarkable. It had 2 rows of benches with work tops. A desk stood at the front the front and the walls were lined with cabinets. In short it looked completely how it should. 10:59. Al, Rose and Scor gripped their wands and stood shoulder to shoulder facing the door, prepared to disarm whoever came through. Scor was keeping an eye on the second hand of his watch as it ticked ever closer to the top.

"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1..."  
"Ohhh." exclaimed Caly. She was standing behind her friends at a slight angle so could see the bright orange light that was penetrating the wall. The other three whipped round and stared as it formed a horizontal trapdoor in the wall. They crept towards it, Caly had her hand outstretched. The wood felt solid beneath her fingers and she could feel another engraving. She pointed her wand at the rectangle and reminded herself of what she must do.

"Alohomora." It creaked open to reveal a black hole. Caly stuck her head in and felt around it was clear that it was passage way. "Come on." she said. "This way."

James sat in bed feeling highly bored. He was scouring the Marauders Map and for the first time he hadn't found anything interesting happening on it. All the teachers were behaving themselves as were the students, god life was so dull all of a sudden. He allowed his eyes to wander, as if on legs, down the marble staircase and off towards the dungeons. You could sometimes find people doing naughty, dirty things down there but tonight they were empty. Or were they? His eyes fixed on a dot hovering in dungeon 6. It was labelled Albus Severus Potter. James had just registered it was there when Al was gone. James blinked. People couldn't just vanish off the map, he knew that. He looked back there and found it empty. He looked in the first year Dorm 1, there were two empty beds, Al's and Malfoy's. The girls dorm was empty. Panicking James leapt out of bed and pulled on his slippers and dressing gown, he took his wand and crept off, determined to, no matter how little he had spoken to his brother, make sure they were ok.


	17. Dungeon Six

Dungeon Six

The four of them crept down the tunnel, passage way, in silence. None of them knew where this passage way went and none of them were stupid enough to ask where it went. Caly felt worry gnawing away at her, what would happen if something went wrong down here, would Al and Rose's family ever find them. Sure they'd left the doors open so someone was bound to wander through eventually but she didn't like to think what it might put the families through. No, Caly mentally rebuked herself, they were going to be fine. They were, they had to be.

The passage way seemed to lead on forever. The walls were made from the same stone as the dungeons but there were no torches hung in brackets at regular intervals meaning the darkness cloaked them. They good only see themselves and a step ahead, the rest was darkness. This being when Caly reached the end of the tunnel she walked straight into the wall.

"Ouch!" she cried as her nose and forehead connected with stone.

"What is it?" asked Scorpius

"I think it's another door, pass me your wand." Scor handed Caly his wand and she shone it on the smooth stone surface in front of her. At first she could see nothing. Nothing that marked it as a door or an entrance. But then she examined the individual stones more carefully and found another engraving of her wand. She pointed her wand at the stone and said

"Alohomora." Nothing happened. Caly frowned and tried to stop feeling worried and to feel the happiness and sense of accomplishment she had felt in Ollivanders.

"Alohomora." Still nothing. She turned to her friends. Their faces were lit up eerily by their wands, like the way children would to tell scary stories. "It's not working."

"There has to be a way in." said Al nervously.

"Maybe it's like Diagon Alley." suggested Rose. Caly frowned at her.

"What?"

"Maybe you don't have to say a spell you just have to tap the stones." Caly thought about and realised that, however time consuming it may be, it was the best shot they had. Caly started at the top and began to tap every brick on the wall in front. Scor shifted from foot to foot and kept his eyes glued to his watch. Caly was well aware of the fact it was at least quarter past 10 but how was she to know that Scor's mother wouldn't actually be in dungeon 6. The wall remained completely inanimate until Caly tapped the brick in the middle of the etching of her wand. The wall cracked in two and then slid backwards revealing a vast dungeon. There was a pause.

"Well." said Caly "In hindsight I probably should have guessed it was that brick." The four of them laughed despite where they were.

They walked slowly into the dungeon. It had a high ceiling, as a high as church and had stone pillars on either side. One side was draped in white and the other in black. Between all the pillars were dark tunnels. The floor was made of polished tiles that reflected the ceiling. The dungeon ran for maybe 100 metres, probably more. At the end was a cauldron at least ten times the size of a standard one. It looked like two people could fit comfortably in it. On the floor in front of it, leaning against it, bound and gagged, was Scor's mother.

"Mother!" Scor cried. She raised her head ever so slightly from where it lolled against her chest. Scor ran down the dungeon and Rose, Al and Caly followed him. When they reached him he was crouched over his mother with tears running down his face. Caly swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat and tried to blink away the tears that clouded her vision.

Mrs Malfoy was so different from the women she had seen on the platform. On the platform she had been a plump, non descript women who had been showering her son with hugs and kisses. Now she was pale and thin. Her hair was wispy and matted. Her eyes had a sunken, vacant look about them. She seemed to have little to no energy but she had registered Scor she had tilted her head ever so slightly towards him. Scor dropped his wand and scrabbled at the knots binding her. Rose snatched it off the ground and stood guard with Al. Caly looked into the cauldron.

She recoiled in shock. Collapsing next to Mrs Malfoy she took deep shuddering breaths. Scor looked over at her, the tears still falling down his face.

"What?" Rose turned and knelt down next to her when she heard Scor question Caly. Caly couldn't think. Her head was spinning, her nostrils were still filled with the stench from the cauldron and the image of the dismembered limbs was still burned into her eyes.

"I know what that potion is." she said. "This is dungeon six and that's a-"

"Wait how can this be dungeon six?" asked Rose "There can't be two dungeon sixes."

"There aren't two the place we came in via is like an anti chamber or something, but seeing as no one knew this place existed they incorrectly labelled that place as dungeon six and the potion is a Gemini Draft." She paused for breath and was about to continue when they heard footsteps coming towards them. Rose and Al got back to their feet and tried to train their wands on where they thought the sound was coming from but the echo made it impossible to trace a location.

"Well done Caly." said the voice of a man. "You know you really are smarter than everyone gives you credit for." All four of them were frozen to the spot trying to work out just why that voice was so familiar. Then the man stepped out from between two pillars on the right.

Caly's mouth dropped open. She thought she might be sick. This wasn't happening. It couldn't be him but at the same time it made sense. That day suddenly made sense. She didn't understand though. She had trusted him, liked him. He had helped her beyond the others.

"Professor Hardingly what are you doing here?" asked Rose completely non-plussed. He was smiling, the banners were white, that meant something or was she just getting distracted. He laughed but it wasn't a good natured chuckle. It was cold, it was completely devoid of mirth.

"You mean Caly hasn't told you?" they all looked back at her. Caly's brain was barely keeping up, she'd only just figured it out but she got what he was trying to do. He was trying to turn them against her.

"You knew?" asked Scor, his voice was shaking with confusion, anger and hurt.

"No not till just now, not till you did, except it made sense."

"Made sense?"

"Gemini, the twins." she said. "Black and white, good and evil."

"What are you talking about?" spat Al.

"There are two of them. Two Professor Hardingly's."

"So they're twins."

"No they're Siamese twins, but they've been separated."

"How do you know this?"

"It doesn't matter. The point is one of them is 'good' and the other is 'evil'. That one is the 'good' one. Of course he's not really good, more happy. This potion will allow them to join bodies, again."

"So why are there limbs floating in it."

"To ensure the two people don't die in the heat and flames a sacrifice for each is made. One of the people in there is the man who attacked me in the grounds, the other is the arithmancy professor who Professor Hardingly has been forcing to help them. I would also hazard a guess that the man from the grounds is in someway connected to the Madon's."

"Madon's?" asked Rose "What have they got to do with this?"

"I don't think what happened to them on the Quidditch pitch was an accident. The fire was the same we all saw it and whoever knocked Nikki off her broom wouldn't do something like that in real life, not in Hufflepuff, no one knows who did it and no one got detention it's like we all….oh." Caly trailed off her eyes growing wide as she reached a conclusion that clearly startled her.

"What?"

"Someone has been messing with our memories ever so slightly this year, they've been trying to be discreet but instead there are things that don't add up. That's how I forgot what they wanted when I figured it out, he panicked, they panicked, and that's why I never asked James who was the attacker, he knew the name, he saw it on the map and then anonymously tipped off his dad. I kept forgetting. That was you." Caly said to Professor Hardingly. "You've been stopping us getting too close to the answer, or as best you could without alerting me. Your brother had told you about the thing that happened in our first lesson and of what the teachers were saying." Professor Hardingly nodded, the smile was still there. "Because this isn't the man that taught us for most of the year. He only did our exams."

"When did you notice this then?"

"When I went to thank him for helping me with my practical magic. The Professor Hardingly who opened the door was the 'evil', 'sad' one, he didn't know what I was talking about, he closed the door and then that one opened the door and he was all smiling and understanding but I noticed he had changed his tie. I thought because the one who'd been teaching us had just had a row with the arithmancy professor so I thought that might be why he was distracted. I thought he might be bi polar or something like that."

"Why didn't you tell us?" asked Rose. Caly shrugged, unsure.

"I guess 'cause it's personal, like I didn't say that I found the arithmancy professor crying in a classroom or the professor Hardingly that taught us kissing Professor Overy. It's just none of our business. I just walked in on personal stuff. Those are the things I don't get." she said to Professor Hardingly. "What part they played in it. I mean I have a guess for the arithmancy one but not Professor Overy."

"Well let me hear your theories, you have been correct so far and I'm not really in a hurry."

"Well I was sitting with James when he was trying to choose the subjects he wants to do next year. He told me the least popular one is arithmancy. That means the professor has lots of spare time on his hands. He can walk around the school and no one will think he's out of place. He's like the perfect spy, if he were willing." Professor Hardingly applauded her, stepping forward with each clap of his hands.

"Excellent, Caly, excellent. I knew you were clever the moment I saw into your mind."

"You've never seen into my mind."

"But my brother has, and as you so astutely said we are Siamese twins, we are deeply linked in ways you can't imagine."

"I don't want to know." said Caly. Professor Hardingly's smile faltered.

"You better watch your tongue."

"What are you going to do cut it off and throw it into the cauldron, please, we both know that would destroy the potion. So what about Professor Overy?"

"Oh my brother was bored so he decided to have an affair with a lonely clingy women. She was not privy to this."

"Bored or broken?" asked Caly. Professor Hardingly smiled and frowned at the same time.

"I had forgotten you'd seen. I think you know the answer." Scor was twitching from where he was standing next to Rose. In one moment he grabbed his wand and went charging at Professor Hardingly.

"NO!" shouted Al, Rose and Caly. Their cry was ignored, even as it echoed around the dungeon. Rose and Al ran after him but Caly found herself being held back by Mrs Malfoy. She looked round to see Scor be thrown down the passage way. Rose and Al's spells were blocked by Professor Hardingly and the four of the disappeared into the darkness that was occasionally streaked with red light.

Caly watched them go with a feeling of hopelessness. She was alone in main part of dungeon six, she had a wand with which she could barely perform the simplest spells, she had a women who had clearly been tortured hanging to her sleeve and she knew the other Professor Hardingly was around somewhere. She knew she had to get help. Al, Rose and Scor were the best in the year but they were no match for Hardingly. She had to get Mrs Malfoy out of here and raise the alarm. She bent down and lifted Mrs Malfoy to her feet. Mrs Malfoy slumped against her and Caly felt her knees buckle. It took tremendous effort to take that first step. She was practically dragging Mrs Malfoy. She had made it ten paces she heard another voice.

"I don't think so." Caly didn't need to bother to turn around to know who it was. She felt like collapsing. She was tired and she was beaten. The other Hardingly raised his wand and pointed it at the ceiling. "Bombarde."

James ran along the passage. For some reason there were a lot of teachers around tonight. He had nearly walked into a whole load of them and had had to double back and take another route. It had taken him twice as long, therefore, to reach dungeon six. He found the door wide open and he entered cautiously and immediately noticed the square hole in the wall. He ran across to it barely registering the fact the door was closing behind him. He examined it. It led to a tunnel. He stood, maybe he should get a teacher, they could be in serious trouble. He crossed to the door and found it locked. He saw a funny engraving of wand above the lock and cursed. Great he was stuck in here but if Al, Rosie, Caly and Malfoy had got in here than one of them must have the wand, right?

James had to admit he was freaking out for his little brother, his cousin and Caly, this whole place was giving him the creeps, it wasn't on the map. Everything was on the map, that's what Teddy had said, except the Room of Requirement because it was _required _to be unplotable. He had to admit he was even a little worried about the Malfoy boy. It couldn't be all bad, in fact everyone liked him after the events of the Quidditch final. He had been quite the hero then, he was pretty quiet and, whilst he never took the bullying lying down, he never gave anyone extra cause to hate him by being violent. He suspect Caly's involvement in that. It was the sort of thing she did.

"Bombarde." James heard the words distantly, they were coming from the end of the passage. He broke into a sprint. He tore down the passage towards the rectangle of light at the end. It grew and grew until he came out into a massive dungeon. He didn't really notice that though because he was more focused on the fact that the ceiling was falling in. He backed up and watched as it blocked his view of most of the dungeon. He was sure he'd seen Caly on the other side. He pounded the rock wall with his fist. He needed to get through. Then he heard a crash and a yell. He looked left. There were passages between the pillars and there was someone who needed help. He didn't give it another thought he took off between two pillars draped in white.

Professor Hardingly continued to throw Scor around like a rag doll whilst deflecting the disarming spells that were being sent by Al and Rose. He had to admit he found this highly amusing. He knew he had pushed the boy to the edge and whilst his plan to get him to turn on Caly hadn't worked at all, they'd just stood there and listened, he had got a very good reaction out of him. Now Everret could take care of Mrs Malfoy and Caly and he could take care of his little friends, then they could join themselves back together. Then what was next? He didn't know but he didn't care he had spent his whole life searching for the voice inside his head that belonged to Everret Hardingly, he had seen countless Healers at St Mungos, all of them labouring under the delusion he was mentally unstable. No he had been torn in half. Taken by his father, his mother had raised Everret, and the secret was kept until quite per chance the two of them met in the waiting room of St Mungos. No one could deny the fact that they were physically identical. The Healers had had a little talk and realised that it made perfect sense. From that day on they had searched for a way to be whole again and finally they had stumbled across the solution in a book in the restricted section of the library.

Al growled in frustration. His best friend was being beaten up. It was time to use something that Caly had told him about, it was called a 'rugby tackle'. He ran forward, shoulders lowered and was about to connect with Professor Hardingly's legs when the man whipped around and shot a stunner at him. Al went cart wheeling off and landed on top of Scor completely unconscious. Professor Hardingly turned on Rose who was trembling she raised her wand but before she had even taken a breath she was stunned. Gerald Hardingly levitated her body on top of her brothers and best friends and then calmly walked off.

Socr groaned his whole head hurt and he was being crushed. He hadn't been knocked unconscious, despite what Professor Hardingly thought. He sat up and let out a startled cry as Rose and Al rolled off him. He took a couple of breaths. They were still breathing. Then the ceiling shook. He yelled and jumped in shock as a rock fell from the ceiling.

The ceiling was falling in on him and his friends but not all of it, this part was obviously weaker, they had been put here for a reason. There was a safe zone. He pointed his wand at Al and muttered

"Wingardium Leviosa." he lifted Al's body off the ground and moved it quickly to avoid a falling rock. He manoeuvred it as swiftly as he could to make sure that he didn't get hit by anything and that Rose wasn't hurt. He nearly he had just placed Al down when James came skidding to halt in front of him. The ceiling was coming down much faster and Scor knew he wouldn't get Rose out.

"Stay where you are!" he yelled at James. Then he threw himself over Rose's body, face down. He felt the heavy weight of the world crash down on him and then he saw blackness.


	18. Family Matters

Family Matters

Caly only turned to face Professor Hardingly when she heard the footsteps that signalled the return of the smiling Professor Hardingly. She put down Mrs Malfoy, unable to hold her up anymore. Mrs Malfoy just sat there, completely unmoving.

"Professor Hardingly, Professor Hardingly."  
"Please." said the smiling one. "I am Gerald."  
"Everret."  
"We do not believe that the formalities are necessary anymore. The teacher, student relationship hardly counts here, Caly."  
"I noticed, you have used my first name, my nick name no less, several times." Gerald smiled even wider. Everret, did not, seem to be enjoying the chatter.

"Less talk." he muttered. He crossed the distance to her and took her arm. Mrs Malfoy was being floated away from her. She suddenly noticed that Mrs Malfoy was in tears. She'd started crying completely silently. Caly hadn't noticed but she had a nasty hunch she knew why. She swallowed and tried not to think about it.

"Now then Caly." said Gerald. "How about you give it to us."

James swore out loud when the last brick fell still. "Malfoy! Malfoy!" There was no response. "Malfoy! Scorpius!" he groaned and punched the rock, cursing again, he rubbed his sore knuckles. He knelt down next to his little brother. He was still breathing and he had a pulse. God Al just had to be exactly like dad and then there was Rose. Was she even alive? He rubbed his eyes. It was just the dust that was causing them to sting and water, he lied to himself. God he was even crying for Malfoy, Scorpius. What should he do? He didn't know how to revive his brother and he certainly wasn't going to leave him. He had to know whether his cousin was alive. It looked like that Scorpius had given his life to try and save Rose's. Friendship, they were family to each other. He pulled himself back to his feet, he could look for Caly but he knew that he would be useless to her. She wouldn't want that if she were in danger. She wouldn't want him there. His hands moved over the rocks until they found a loose one. He pulled it out and started to work.

"Erm." said Caly as she wrenched her arm from Everret and backed away. "I would if you just, told me what it was!" They looked at each other.  
"Your wand."  
"My wand?" said Caly, she furrowed her brow. There were pieces falling into place in her mind but it was all confused, like someone was covering the answer.

Caly weighed up the choices. She was outnumbered two to one against two adult wizards who could perform complex magic, basically she was doomed. Her only hope was that she bought time and that someone would notice the open door. People patrolled the corridors, if someone stumbled across the entrance they were saved. It was part of the reason they left it open, it drew attention to itself. Also Scor and Al shared a dorm with three other boys if any of them woke up in the night and found them missing they'd raise the alarm. There was a chance.

Everret flicked his wand and Caly found herself dangling in the air. Great she thought now they're going to torture me. It was only after that thought had flitted through her head in a sort of whiny tone that one might use to complain about homework did she understand the seriousness of what she had said. He was going to torture her or k..kill Mrs Malfoy. Caly struggled but it was no use, she was fighting magic. The blood was rushing to her head it was getting harder and harder to think.

Everret dropped Caly back onto the floor. She landed in a heap with a faint oof of pain. He bent down and tried to take the wand but Caly rolled over and put her hand underneath her. Everret scrabbled around on the floor trying to snatch the wand but he couldn't reach it. Caly flipped onto her back and kicked out at Everret. Both her feet connected with his stomach and sent him flying off her. He skidded away and then ran back for more. She rolled to the side just in time, Everret connected with the ground with a painful crunch. He let out a howl of pain. Caly got to her feet and began to kick him. She wanted to hurt this man beyond anything. Her friends were probably dead all because of him. She had never felt so much hatred.

"STOP!" Caly looked up to see Gerald pointing his wand at Mrs Malfoy. He was still smiling like a maniac, despite the fact his brother was being beaten up. He was completely calm, but then again it wasn't like there was anything Caly could do about it. She was trapped in this place. He motioned for her to step back. She did so obediently.

"Get up." he spoke with such disdain in his voice Caly was shocked. Everret got up and walked towards Gerald, straightening his clothes and brushing of the dirt.  
"It is not my fault. How was I to know she was psycho. She seemed sane when I looked in her mind. If irritatingly clever."  
"Actually I'm not." Caly had no idea what made her say this, she guessed she was just trying to buy her and Mrs Malfoy more time. "If I was I'd have worked out who the other man in the cauldron was in relation to Madon's." Everret and Gerald exchanged a glance and Caly knew exactly what they were thinking. They wanted this over with quickly but it couldn't hurt and they hadn't had this much fun in ages.  
"The man in the cauldron is the man who 'reconciled' us; Healer Jackson Winters."  
"So he's not their father, darn I thought I had this whole thing figured out."  
"Oh quite to the contrary."  
"He _is_ their father! But…oh. They grew up with their mother in America, their parents aren't married. That's why he fled to the States, to seek refuge with their family and you picked on his children, who are in Hogwarts because their mother thinks it's better, I remember James saying, to scare him and prove him that you were not someone to be messed with."  
"Congratulations again, Caly. Now give me the wand or I will kill Astoria, here." His wand was trained very steadily on her and Caly had absolutely no doubt in her mind that he would kill her without batting an eyelid, unless he was blinking. She shook her head ever so slightly. She needed to stop panicking and thinking those irrelevant thoughts. She looked at Mrs Malfoy. Her eyes were large with fear. She was crying, tears were spilling fast and entirely silently down her face. Her body was shaking with fear. Caly almost sighed, almost.

"Why? I don't get why you need my wand?"  
"Because it's special!" spat Everret. "It's the three cores blended together. There is only one in existence. Just like we are the only true Siamese twins in a Millennia."  
"True Siamese twin?"  
"I told you." said Gerald, placing a restraining hand on his brothers shoulder. "We have a connection beyond anything you can understand." Caly thought about it, then remembered what he had said about him seeing into her mind when actually Everret had done the seeing.

"You can see into each others thoughts?"  
"Well to put it crudely, yes, but it is much more complicated than that."  
"So the potion will only work on you with my wand?"  
"Yes."  
"I don't remember reading about that."  
"Because true Siamese twins are so rare people don't believe we exist."  
"Okay." She looked at Mrs Malfoy once more. Her tears had increased. Caly stepped forward holding out her wand. Mrs Malfoy was practically rocking backward and forward. Caly didn't know what Gerald and Everret were going to do once they were joined together but she would bet her guitar that it wouldn't be good. Both of them could of them gained her wand by perfectly legal ways, they could have just asked to borrowed it. The way they went about it was so well vicious that the future just couldn't bode well. Caly was also pretty sure that the pining away and the constant voices inside their heads had driven them both slightly crazy.

"Wait." she said, holding back the wand from the men. Gerald was physically restraining Everret who was trying to rip the wand out of her hand. He looked deranged, he was like an animal that had scented blood. She stood corrected it had not driven them slightly crazy it had driven them completely insane. She could not believe that this man had taught her for a year. He'd seemed perfectly sane at the beginning, maybe it was being near the wand that was causing him to go crazy.  
"What?"  
"I want to know what's happened to my friends." Mrs Malfoy's head shot up.

"The Potter and the Weasley children are both stunned and, hopefully, crushed by the ceiling though I can't say." Caly felt like her insides were imploding. Her heart beat was slowing down, her head was pounding, this wasn't happening. No, this was all wrong, all her fault. She blinked away the tears.

"And Scor?" Mrs Malfoy was rigid in fear.

"I don't know, I think he was unconscious but I didn't stun him so, if all went to plan, he should be crushed by rocks." Mrs Malfoy collapsed. She let out a silent moan. Her fingers raked down her face so hard it drew blood. She sobbed onto the floor. Caly didn't even bother this time she cried a few tears then tried to get a grip, he had said hopefully. They could still be alive. Caly had to take that chance, had to believe in that wildest hope. She gave him the wand. Gerald smirked. Everret looked like he might have some sort of fit, his face was contorted with joy and happiness. Everret spun on the spot and screamed.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

James had shifted quite a lot of rocks but he was always met with more. Then he heard a scream. He whipped around. It had to be Caly! Merlin, it sounded like she was in real trouble. He deliberated for a moment. They were all unconscious or… and he wasn't doing them much good and despite knowing that Caly was the kind of person who would not want him to come save her he didn't have a choice. He laid his dressing gown over his brother and ran off.

The tunnel he had come in via led him to a wall of rocks, he knew that so instead he picked another one. James had always been told he had a one track mind when he was a kid; trouble. Now he knew his mind was on loop; save Caly, save Caly, save Caly. He couldn't think about anything else. He knew his dad had always told him to not do anything stupid that was also dangerous but right now he didn't have a choice. God he wished his dad was here, hell he'd even want his cousin Molly here. He'd never felt so scared.

James came charging out from between two pillars. He saw Professor Hardingly, then another one. James stumbled and tripped over his own feet. He landed on the cold ground confused. How could there be two Professor Hardinglys? It didn't make any sense. He looked up and saw that both of them were looking at him with looks of shock and confusion. Caly was pale, but completely unharmed, well physically at least. On the floor was the body of Mrs Malfoy, dead. Caly looked like she was seconds away from having some sort of break down.

"What the?" stuttered one of the Professors, he was smiling in a creepy, muggle clown way. "When did he get in here?"  
"It doesn't matter, he's not a big threat. Let's just perform the ceremony. Then we can kill them both."

All this time James was sliding himself across the floor towards Caly. She seemed frozen, she looked petrified, like what had happened to Aunt Hermione, he'd seen a memory once. The bickering… twins?, he was guessing, were walking towards the cauldron. James had absolutely no idea what was going on but he recognised the wand. It was Caly's, it was also the wand on the door. He also did not like it one bit. He drew his wand from his pocket as the two men began chanting in a strange language. He pointed it in the general direction of the cauldron and said

"Stupefy." he whispered. They both reacted just in time to stop it hitting the cauldron. Both men drew their wands and conjured a shield. The curse bounced off and hit a pillar causing it to break and fall onto the floor with a resounding crash next to Everret who divided out of the way. The crash was the signal for two things to happen. Firstly Caly came out of her trance and all hell broke loose. James had hidden himself behind a large bit of rock and was firing spells at the two professor who were both dumbfounded at how their plans had been derailed by a few pre-teens. 1st and 2nd years, who had torn holes in their carefully laid plans.

James may be a 2nd year but James also prided himself on being one thing and that was a Potter and if there was one subject at Hogwarts the Potters were good at it was Defence Against the Dark Arts. He wasn't a match for the Professors, not in anyway, he hadn't landed a single hit, but he was certainly keeping them occupied. In all the confusion of spells flying everywhere. No one noticed Caly's wand rolling out of Everret's pocket. Then a particularly violent spell blew up the rock behind which he was hiding. James scrambled to his feet, backing away in plain view. Caly had spotted for her wand, and unnoticed by the others dived for it. Gerald and Everret advanced on James, who was fast running out of ideas. Gerald raised his wand and James realised he was going to die at the age of 12. He closed his eyes and thought of all the good times and tried not to worry about the pain. Then a shout came.

"James get down!" His eyes flew open and he saw Caly standing there with her wand pointing at Gerald. Her hand was shaking. Caly couldn't believe she was about to do this but she didn't have another option, he was going to kill James unless she stopped him. Was there another way? James dropped to the floor as he heard two cries.

"Expelliarmus!"  
"Avada Kedavra."

Caly watched as the green beam shot towards the place James had just been. The red beam was completely on target. She could see James' confused face. Then the red collided with green and knocked it off course. When the two jets of lights met an explosion occurred that knocked the three people standing onto the floor and James spun back into the rock wall, Caly was now pretty sure he was unconscious. Caly was thrown into one of the pillars. She felt excruciating pain in the back of her head as she slid down the pillar. In fact she was pretty sure she'd been cut. The whole world was spinning and there was a killing curse ricocheting off the dungeon walls. She watched the two Professors, in her disorientated state she couldn't tell them apart, shout at each other. One ran towards the rocks, the other towards the cauldron. The last thing Caly saw was one man blasting a hole in the rock wall whilst the killing curse connected with the cauldron, it melted drenching one man, who screamed whilst the other abandoned his family and left.

Caly felt really groggy. She was pretty sure she'd had a rough night and not in the way the older kids would talk about 'having a rough night'.

"Caly. Caly. Caly." She could hear someone calling her name. She began to pry her eyes open feeling them to be ten times heavier than before. She looked and saw a boy kneeling before her.  
"Al?"  
"No. I'm James." Caly blinked several times and suddenly the room, or should she say dungeon came into focus. In front of her was James, with a very concerned look on his face.

"Caly how are you feeling?"  
"I don't know. My head hurts."  
"Yeah I would imagine, you hit it pretty hard. You've been out for hours."  
"Hours?"  
"Yeah it's 8:30. Pm."  
"Pm! It's Sunday evening!" James nodded. Caly sat up straighter and examined him. James looked very pale and his eyes were slightly red but he didn't seem very upset. Caly closed her eyes and let everything come back to her. There were two things she was unsure about.

"Which of the twins died, Everret or Gerald?"  
"Er I have no idea." Caly nodded, she hadn't expected him to. "How do you know their names?"  
"Oh we were becoming quite well acquainted." she said bitterly.  
"I see." Caly swallowed and prepared to ask the big question.

"What happened to Al, Rosie and Scor?"  
"Al and Rose are both out cold, they were stunned and I don't know the spell to revive them."  
"But he said they were being crushed with rocks."  
"Yeah, well Scorpius saved them. He must levitated Al out and then he protected Rose.""He-did you just call him Scorpius?" James looked away so that she couldn't see his face.  
"James, what happened to Scor?" James sighed and looked back at her his eyes were shimmering.  
"I'm sorry. There was nothing I could do. He saved Rosie's life. He threw himself on top of her when the ceiling came down." He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. "Caly he's dead."

Caly went numb. Physically numb she couldn't feel anything. She couldn't even think anymore. Though she could see and hear James trying to attract her attention she did not register nor respond to it. James sighed and got to his feet. They needed to get out. He had the bodies in the dungeon, just to the left. He could levitate three people but that meant he couldn't take Mrs Malfoy. He would have to leave her in the dungeon. He didn't particularly like the idea of leaving her with the man who had helped murder her but he didn't have a choice. Caly was incapacitated. She didn't look capable of standing. It was just like when he the Professors had told her what had happened. She had looked petrified and she looked the same now but maybe if he could just get her to stand they could get out of here.

Caly felt someone pull her to her feet. She wobbled and felt James steady her. The motions had broken some of her numbness and she walked, zombie like towards the body of one of the Professors. She looked down into his face, trying to work out which one he was. The man had a scowl on his face that she was sure that Gerald was not capable off performing.

"Everret." she muttered. She had said it to herself but James had heard.  
"What?"  
"That one is Everret."  
"How can you be sure?"  
"The expression on his face."  
"Okay let's go."  
"What about Mrs Malfoy?"  
"I can't take her, I can't levitate four people at once and you can't lift one and I wouldn't let you if you could. We'll have someone come fetch her."  
"Why didn't you get help?"  
"Erm. Well you see I shut the door behind me and I couldn't get out. I noticed later the wand marked on the door was yours. Hang on, how did those two get in then?"  
"They're true Siamese twins."  
"So?"  
"The door would have let them in, they're the living counter parts of the wand."  
"I see."

James shot her a worried look. She was speaking in a monotone that was so unlike her. Then again he reasoned she had just lost her best friend. He couldn't imagine how he'd feel if he lost Colin. James knew he would still have the twins but half the time they were in a world of their own and he was sure he wouldn't be able to put up with them if he wasn't mad himself.

The walk up to McGonagall's office was the worst of the trying ordeal for James. He was levitating three people, reading a map, avoiding contact with all people and supporting Caly who was like a dead weight. He had never been more grateful for the Marauders Map, he didn't want to walk into anyone when he had two unconscious bodies of his cousin and brother and the… dead body of their best friend. James had to practically carry Caly, had to do everything for her. When they came to the door in the place he thought was dungeon six she had tried three times to open it and eventually James had to take her hand and say the incantation for her. He had been surprised it had worked but it seemed her holding the wand was enough.

James gave the gargoyle the password and tucked the map away in his shoe. Scorpius had his dressing gown draped over him now, James couldn't look at his face without feeling guilty and he hadn't thought it a good idea to let Caly see him, she'd probably have another breakdown. He paused outside McGonagall's office and looked at Caly. She was so pale in the light, her clothes were torn, and she was lucky not to be covered in blood. He floated Al and Rose in front and then knocked on the door. There was a tired call of 'enter'. James looked at Caly leaning against the wooden door and felt a serge a déjà vu, just like the beginning of the year. He pushed the door open.

"JAMES!"

Caly was brought out of her final stages of numbness by the shouts as they opened the door. Everyone seemed to have noticed Al and Rose were fine she could see them hovering in front and then she realised that the 'everyone' she was referring to was James' whole family. She was pushed away as they all surged to hug him. Caly felt lost both physically and emotionally as she was pushed from James. She stumbled from James. She knocked into the pillar and leant against it. No one had noticed Scor yet. That did it for her, the fact that she had been responsible for his death came crashing down on her. She sank to the floor and sobbed uncontrollably. At the same time Lily screamed.

The entire Potter/Weasley family turned to see what Lily was screaming about. There behind James was a body covered in red and gold dressing gown embodied with the letters JSP. There was white blonde hair hanging down from the neck. No one needed to be told who it was. Professor McGonagall collapsed into her seat behind her desk and reached for her handkerchief. Professor Flitwick was crying into Professor Slughorn's arm who was shaking his head. Professor Sprout too was in tears. Both Hagrid and Neville couldn't believe it. They stared at him. All the Potters gazed at his limp form. James detached his mothers arms that were around him and walked over to where Caly was rocking back and forth. She weeping and she was out of control. James didn't know how to comfort people so he simply put his arms around her hunched form and let her cry.

"Winky." Professor McGonagall's summons were barely audible. There was a crack and a house elf appeared.  
"Yes ma'am."  
"Kindly take these three to the hospital wing. The third body is…dead. Please be respectful." Winky bowed.  
"Wait." called James, everyone looked at him. "There are two more bodies." Everyone looked at him "His mother, and one of the people who is responsible for this."  
"Take his mother's body to the hospital wing. Leave the other, I think it would be unwise for them to wake up with one of the people who did this in the same room. Where is she?"  
"If you go to dungeon six, you should find a hole in the wall go through and you should find another dungeon, she's in there I didn't want to leave her but I couldn't take her." He shrugged. Professor McGonagall nodded. Winky bowed and took the bodies and left with a crack. There was a silence in which Caly continued to sob into her knees and the family watched her whilst the cousins that knew him, especially Roxy tried to control themselves.

"Well I'd love to say I'd miss him." said Ron after a pause "But I can't think of many who will."

Something in Caly snapped when she heard that. All the people in Ron's family were turning on him with varying degrees of shock, horror or disgust but she didn't notice. She flew at him and pinned him against the wall. Caly was much stronger than she looked especially as she was enraged. James stepped forward and tired to calm her out she shrugged him off. Her ears were filled with this sort of buzzing.  
"Listen to me!" she hissed. "I don't if you're a war hero! I don't care how many battles you fought in! I don't care how much you suffered, how much you lost! Nothing gives you the right to say that! There are people that care, that miss him. I do, we do. He's one of the most selfless people I knew. He had to go through his whole life with people like _you _judging him without meeting him and he never complains, he never lashes out. He's never turned sour. I'd like to see you try it. Do you want to know how he died? He saved Rose's life! James saw it!" Ron was frozen with shock. His eyes travelled to James who nodded. Harry stepped forward and separated them. He sat her down and gave her a hug. Caly gripped him back very tightly. It was the closest thing she'd had to an embrace from a parent.

They were broken apart by a crack as Winky returned.

"Sorry for disturbing you sirs and misses but I have an update."  
"Let's hear it." said McGonagall who looked much older, angry and upset.  
"Master Albus and Miss Rose were revived and have been given a dreamless sleep draft each. They will wake up tomorrow morning." Caly watched as all the many cousins and siblings breathed sighs of relief and all the adults muttered things like thank god, too much like their parents.

"However Master Scorpius will be out for a long time for he is re-growing every bone in his body." There was a pause.  
"What?" asked Caly, she twisted around in her seat to stare at the house elf. She cowered slightly.  
"Master Scorpius will take a long time to recover, miss."  
"But he was dead."  
"I cannot explain miss but he was dead miss, but then he began to breath, very labouredly."  
"But will he live?"  
"Yes miss." Caly grinned from ear and leapt up to hug James, who looked just as relived. It seemed all hard feelings James had felt towards Scor had evaporated.

"What is the point?" asked Ron who looked slightly resentful "He's got no family. No one that loves him."  
"Shut up!" snapped Caly. "Weren't you listening? He's my brother, he's our brother. He was prepared to give his lives for them! You're obviously stuck in the past so why don't you just leave?" Ron gaped at her. The Headmistress got to her feet.

"I have always welcomed you in Hogwarts Ron but if you continue to insult and distress my students I must ask you to leave." Ron shrank back, his anger quelled by his old professors stern glare. "Now, sit James, Caly. I think it is time we heard the story." Caly sunk into a chair and opened her mouth to explain.

She spoke for half an hour, explaining everything that had happened since the start of the year to her and her friends. She explained about hw she'd walked in on the professors and her reasons for being quiet. Caly told them about the letters, the threats and the decision it was Mrs Malfoy. She told them about what had happened last week, Professor Longbottom looked surprised that he hadn't noticed Scor or Caly down there. All the parents looked shocked that their children had lied about something as important as that. They had really believed they hadn't felt special, instead they had just being trying to wheedle out of detention, save their friend from detention and get his mother saved. Eventually they reached tonight. Caly told her story quickly as she could whilst still being coherent. She explained how everything fitted together and how she'd figured it all out. She started crying again when she got to the part when Mrs Malfoy died. James reached over and rubbed her arm. She started talking about how James had turned up and they'd been interrupted by Ginny who had asked how James had got there. James said he'd explain when Caly was done. Caly finished in a rush and James took up the narrative.

He told them how he had been in bed and had been looking at his map of Hogwarts when he noticed Al vanish in the anti chamber of dungeon six.

"Map?" asked McGonagall.  
"Our, mine and Teddy's, grandparents created it." He sighed and took it out of his shoe. "I saw them and I noticed Caly, Rose and Scorpius were gone too. I got worried so I followed them. I got there when-"  
"Wait did you have this on the first day?" asked McGonagall very seriously.  
"Yes but don't worry I tipped off dad." Professor McGonagall looked up and sighed  
"Very well but you should have told me."  
"I know. I'm sorry. Anyway I got there when the ceiling fell in. I heard Scorpius and yell so I ran off to help him. I got there and he had levitated Al's body to safety. The ceiling was coming down really fast, he had a chance to run. He told me to stay where I was and then he threw himself over Rose, to protect her. Then the ceiling came down. I started taking the apart the rocks but then I heard Caly scream so then I ran to her and you heard the rest."

"And why did it take so long for you to get here?"  
"Well like she said it was a special and I couldn't get out. Caly was unconscious, as were Rose and Al and I thought Scor was dead. But before that I had been knocked unconscious, I was out till about half 12. I came round and I realised I couldn't leave till Caly came round"  
"So what did you do?"  
"I checked Caly wasn't hurt and then levitated Al back to the main dungeon. I then went back to shifting rock. It took me till 11 in the morning to get to Scor and Rose. I found Rose unconscious and well Scorpius. I think I passed out with tiredness because the next thing I knew it was half 7. I moved Scor and Rose back to the main dungeon. I waited at 8 Caly began to show signs of waking then at 8:30 she woke up." They nodded.

"Right I think we should get you all to bed. You could all use dreamless sleep drafts and don't worry about Scorpius." said Harry, he looked at Teddy very meaningfully "He's not quite as family less as you may think."


	19. A Long Way BacK

A Long Way Back

Caly, Rose and Al were all discharged from the hospital wing the next day. They hadn't wanted to go back to lessons, of course, but Professor McGonagall had been adamant, along with Al and Rosie's parents that their lives should return to normality. Naturally when your best friends is slowly regaining life second by second in the hospital wing, so that every time you see him he looks like he's more alive but still completely unconscious, your life can hardly be called normal. They went to visit Scor every day without fail. They popped in in the morning before breakfast. They came by in lunch and break and then after school instead of retuning to their dormitories, they would sit in Hospital Wing and complete their work. It had been astounding that on Saturday they had been battling their Transfiguration teachers and then on Monday they were getting Transfiguration homework, Professor McGonagall was subbing the class. Most students didn't know what had happened and Caly and her friends wouldn't say but one common fact was that Scorpius Malfoy had died and come back to life for Rose Weasley.

They never left Scor alone though, Madame Pomfrey had said Scor would most likely be as mentally developed as he was when he was killed, it was just physically he needed to re-grow. Therefore he would know that his mother was most likely dead. She had said that if you gave him a reason to live he would come back faster. As a result there was always someone as his bedside talking to him. Victorie had quite a few free periods and spent them in the hospital discussing her career options and practising her interview with an unconscious boy. The rest, however, did not have study periods so looking after him in the day was generally left to an old women whose name was Andromeda. She was Teddy's grandmother and said she had nothing better to do now Teddy had moved out. Teddy came over and spent a lot of time, when ever he could get a break from training to be a dark wizard catcher. His reason was that it let him see Victoire who he was dating and he was bored.

It was two weeks before he started showing signs of waking. It was the first week in July and there was little school left. Caly wasn't looking forward to going back to the care home but Al had been dropping hints that she could spend some time at his, that sounded pretty cool and it would make her summer less boring. From what Al had told her all the children that were in Hogwarts invited over their closest friends for a week to stay at the Burrow, their grandparents house, in August and all hell broke lose. It sounded perfect, just like Hogwarts. It would be the last time that Vicotrie could invite anyone round because she graduated this year.

Caly was gently strumming her guitar which Madame Pomfrey greatly approved of, Al was reading the Quidditch results from the Prophet and Rose was sitting quietly, her eyes filled with tears. She always got like this. The thing was, Scor was now perfectly healthy but he was still completely unconscious. No one blamed Rose, it had been Scor's choice but she blamed herself. Caly honestly couldn't blame her. She blamed herself for both him being like this and his mother's death. His mother had been preserved because they all agreed that Scor should be at the funeral.

Scor let out a small groan and twitched his fingers. They all froze. Al dropped the Prophet and scurried to fetch Madame Pomfrey. She bustled over and began to examine him. She stood back on heels and smiled, it was the first time Caly had ever seen her do that. She summoned the house elf Winky and told her to fetch Professor McGonagall and Longbottom. She started humming some song to herself as she straightened the covers and Al coughed pointedly. She shushed and pointed at Scor. It was quite clear she was not about to explain until Professor McGonagall got there. Caly thought this was highly unfair, she had meant what she had said Scor was her brother. She huffed and crossed her arms and legs and watched as he squirmed and moaned a bit more. It looked like he was in pain but at the same time he was waking up, wasn't that good?

The hospital wing doors flew open and a in came, not just Professor McGonagall and Longbottom, but also Sprout, Flitwick, Hagrid and Slughorn. A few seconds later came the entire Weasley family. Caly blinked. It was the entire Weasley family, plus extensions. Obviously there were the children at Hogwarts; Vic, Freddie, Molly, Dom, Roxy and James. Then following behind was Mr Potter and his wife and daughter, Rose's family, Vic and Dom's parents and little brother, Fred and Roxy's parents and Molly's family. Also there was Teddy and Andromeda. She had a feeling that they were much more important than everyone had made out, she had not forgotten the look Harry had given Teddy before he had said 'he's not quite as family less as you may think.'

"He's waking up." said Madame Pomfrey in excitement, "He should be awake soon."

Scor had no experience in mountain climbing, he knew it was something muggles did for leisure, he had learnt these sort of things to annoy his father. He could still remember the time the main staircase had become 'Mount Everest' and he had been climbing it, he had been six. His father had shouted for hours. He had screamed at him for disgracing the family for playing muggle games, his father had then shoved him on his old nimbus 2001, it was much to big for him and forced him to fly round the garden. It was a strange way to discover a passion for something. He had tried hard not to fly to annoy father but the fact of the matter was the skies called to him. He had got his revenge by losing the snitch and therefore having to play chaser. His father had wanted him to be seeker of the Slytherin team. That had turned out so well. If he could laugh, which he couldn't, he would because he was now chaser for the Gryffindor team.

Anyway he would guess mountain climbing was something like what he was going through now. He knew that you had to really push to get to the top of a mountain. Scor wasn't stupid he knew exactly what was going on, well not exactly, he was a little confused but he knew he was trying to regain consciousness. He had to push up towards the, whatever was at the top. He had to push on, past the hurt and the pain. He had to move. He had to climb, on foot in front of the other. It wasn't easy. He knew the world hated him. He knew that no matter what he did that there would be people that would always hate him. The thing was Scor had found three people who felt the opposite and that was at the top of his mountain. His body was getting more battered and bruised, there was so much pain. So much fatigue. The noise level was increasing. He knew, because he was clever, he was regaining consciousness. He had been on this path for two weeks. At first his body not real, really, it was ethereal and painless. He just sort of floated along the path and didn't really get anywhere. Of course you can't walk if you have no feeling in your legs.

The top of the mountain, what did the muggles call it? The Summi, that was it. He was near the Summi. This meant that he was going to wake up. He wondered if anyone would care. He didn't actually know if they'd got out. He had hope. Merlin knows he didn't have much else. In fact he had nothing. Nothing but hope. The rational, logical part of his mind. The part that, since he had met them, sounded like Rose, told him that this wasn't enough. There needed to be concrete proof and evidence and facts. The part of his brain that got irritated by the logical part of his brain, it sounded like Al, told him, scathingly, that there was just as good a chance that they were alive as dead. Then the final part, the part that sounded like Caly, the part that was his instinct, his emotional side. This was the one that kept up the mantra of irrational hope.

He had reached the top of his mountain. The arduous climb was over. He gazed at the sky and as he did, he noticed it became whiter, lighter. The sun multiplied out into four and changed colour. There were two green suns and two brown suns. The two green ones were next to each other and the two green ones were next to each other. He blinked. The sky was white with two brown suns and two green suns. What was happening? He'd thought he was waking up. He tried to think but the pain was increasing as it had been for the entirety of the climb. What would be the same colour and next to each other? What was even coloured? He thought it over. Hard as he started to float up towards them, the pain climbing up a notch as he rose. Then suddenly it made sense. The pain reached it's climax. They were eyes!

Caly, Al, Rose watched as Scor half opened his eyes his face contorted with pain. His whole body was tense and he was sweating. His brow was furrowed, in a the way it was when he tried to solve a particularly hard puzzle or last longer than 5 minutes in a chess game with Caly. Then his eyes snapped open. For a moment his gaze was confused and he didn't seem to focus on anyone but then his eyes slid onto Al and Caly, he looked them right in the eyes and frowned. Caly could feel the tears in her eyes. She felt like collapsing, with relief. He was back! After all this time Scor was back with them!  
"Al, Caly, you're alive."  
"Of course we weren't hurt." said Al. Caly nodded biting her lip. Scor opened his mouth to say something else but was interrupted by Rose who, unable to contain herself any longer, threw her arms around him and burst into tears. Scor looked thoroughly taken aback and Caly couldn't blame him. Though Rose had come close to tears several times in the past couple of weeks she hadn't actually cried. Rose wasn't really the emotional sort though. No one really expected her to start crying. Scor looked at Al and Caly for direction who just shrugged. Scor tried to raise an arm to pat her on the back but it took till the third go for him to actually do it.

"Hey it's ok Rosie. I'm fine."  
"I know you stupid…" whatever the rest of her sentence was it was muffled by her tears as she continued to cry. Scor sent Caly a bemused look who couldn't help but laugh at the look on his face. Both her and Al felt good about finally being able to laugh again, two weeks of silence had been very trying for them so, even though there wasn't anything funny. They ended up leaning on each other for support because they laughed so hard. Scor stared at them sure the world had gone mad. It was then he noticed the congregation he had around his bed.

His mouth dropped and Al and Caly got the giggles again at this. Rose had stopped crying by now and was laughing at the look of shock on his face. He looked like he'd been frozen. Scor hadn't been expecting any of these people to be here. Okay maybe James, Roxy and Fred because he had played Quidditch with Roxy and Fred and James had somehow ended up in the dungeons but the rest. He suddenly realised these were all the voices he had heard whilst he had been walking his path, all the words of encouragement and the…

"Victorie." he said at last.  
"Please call me Vic."  
"Err Vic, were you practising your job interview on me?" Vic went red and then nodded.  
"Err yes I was, you remember."  
"Not everything but you did it like once a day."  
"Yeah well I had one free period a day so. Do you mind?"  
"No I am just confused as to why." Vic rolled her eyes.  
"And I thought Rosie said you were intelligent. The same reason Rosie started crying when you woke up, the same reason we're all here today. You're saying you don't know what that is." Scor thought for a moment.  
"Because I saved Rose."  
"And Al and probably James too, but yeah. You did something incredible down there. We're all really sorry for the way we treated you, earlier." Scor watched the rounds of nods and smiles and the sorrys. He couldn't help but smile as he lent back into his pillows he felt incredibly relaxed, a huge weight had been lifted.  
"Thank you."  
"For what?" piped up a blonde eight year old. Scor frowned at him.  
"You're Louis, right?"  
"Correct."  
"I'm thankful that you all have finally excepted me for who I am and that I am not my father."  
"Don't you want to be like your father?" asked Louis "I love my father, I want to be just like him, though maybe without the scars." Everyone tensed a little but Scor was too tired and happy to be offended.  
"Well you father is always a good man and he's never done anything bad. My father has done some bad things. If I wanted to be like him than I would want to be like a bad person and that's well, why would I want that?" Louis thought it over.  
"That makes sense."  
"Of course it does." Louis laughed and Scor managed a weak sort of smile but it was clear he was in loads of pain.

"Madame Pomfrey." he said  
"Yes dear."  
"Can I have anything for the pain?"  
"I'm afraid not, best to keep you awake now that we've got you back." Scor looked alarmed at the prospect of no more sleep "Until night." she hurriedly amended.

"What happened though?" asked Scor "After the rocks came down." Caly sat down on his bed and James sighed, he was getting tired of recounting it.  
"Well he wanted he wanted my wand." she said.  
"Your wand!" he said, then he hit himself on the head. "Scor!" they all admonished "Sorry, we should have guessed.""What?"  
"It was on the door, you told us the story, it was obviously special."  
"Oh my god, of course. God we're stupid."  
"Now that's something Rose doesn't say everyday."  
"Fred!"  
"Sorry mum."

"But you didn't give it to them." said Scor. There was a pause. "Oh please tell me you didn't give it to them."  
"Well I thought you three were dead and they were threatening your mother, so yeah I gave it to them."  
"Oh Caly!"  
"What would you have done? I was trapped in a dungeon, the rocks had blocked my exit, I had no escape! I didn't have a choice! And then they." She closed her eyes. "I'm sorry, they killed your mother." Scor looked down.  
"I know."  
"How?"  
"I'll tell you later."  
"Yeah and James turns up."  
"How did you get there?"  
"I saw Al vanish on the Marauders map."  
"The Marauders made a map?"  
"Yeah it shows where everyone is in Hogwarts. Anyway I saw Al vanish and the rest of you weren't on it so I went to investigate."

They gave a pretty quick outline of events from then on and Scor was surprised by how Caly had got away. When she'd set the part about the stunner and he'd opened his mouth she'd held up her hands like she knew he'd interrupt so he let it slide until the end. Scor had a sneaking suspicion that something had happened in McGonagall's office because James kept glancing at Caly who was rubbing her neck, something she only did when she wanted to change the subject.

"So I don't get it." he said when they finished. "How come your spell knocked his off course."  
"It didn't I disarmed the spell not the person." said Caly.  
"You what?"  
"Look this is really hard to explain but try and understand. I disarmed the spell it's like sometimes when you use expelliarmus on people you can knock them off their feet. I didn't aim at the wand I didn't have time. We both had our wands pointing at the same thing so the were going to collide. Mine was just more powerful."  
"Yours was more powerful." Scor said in disbelief  
"I know it's shocking." said Caly.  
"Okay so what was different?"  
"I have no idea, my recollection is foggy at best I was knocked out seconds later."  
"Oh."  
Scor collapsed backwards again all the colour gone from his face. He had become increasingly excited as Caly and James had told their story, now he looked dead.

"Scorpius." Harry stepped forward.  
"Yes Mr Potter."  
"Harry, anyway, you do have family."  
"What are you talking about?"  
"You have a blood family that want you."  
"No I don't my mothers family are all dead and my father hates me." He sighed "How did you know what I was thinking about?"  
"It's written all over your face. I do understand."  
"Of course you do." his tone made it very clear he didn't want any pity or sympathy.  
"But I can assure you that you have blood relatives." Scorpius frowned at him  
"And I can assure I don't."  
"What can you tell me about your grandmother Narcissa's family." Caly's gaze travelled onto two different people and it all clicked into place inside her head.  
"Ohhh." she said.  
"What?" said Scor  
"You have a family, now answer his question." Scor huffed, but Caly didn't lie about things like this so he turned back to Harry.  
"She had a sister called…." he trailed off and examined the bead sheets "Called Bellatrix" Neville stiffened. "She was a death eater and she was cruel and violent and she tortured and killed for fun. She's dead."  
"So you don't know about her other sister."  
"Other sister?" Scor looked up, his curiosity piqued. Then he shook his head. "No I would have heard of her."  
"Not if she had been blasted off the family tree for marrying a muggle." Scor paused.  
"Can you just tell me."  
"This is your great aunt Andromeda Tonks and your second cousin Teddy Lupin."

It was quite amusing to watch Scor gaze open mouthed at the two people who Harry had just introduced and splutter incoherently. Scor always prided himself on being able to throw out a witty, in his opinion, remark at any point and never be left with nothing to say. However it was quite clear to Caly that right now Scor could not think of a single thing, intelligent or otherwise, to say to his great aunt and second cousin. He opened and closed his mouth several more times then said.

"So your related to grandmother Narcissa." he said as if he was trying to get this right inside his head.

"Yes, she was sister but as Harry said I was blasted off the family tree when I married a muggle Ted Tonks. Teddy here is my daughters son."  
"Of course, Nymphadora and Remus Lupin, the memorial." Teddy nodded gravely. "Are you related to this lot then?" he asked waving at the predominantly ginger family.  
"No Harry is my godfather."  
"My father, does he know about this?"  
"I believe not. He has made no move to ask how you are or anything of the sort. You don't have to go stay with him because Andromeda is more than willing to offer you a home." Scor nodded. "I think it's best if you get some rest. This is a lot to take in. You don't have to say yes but um well think about it. I think it would be good for you." Scor nodded. The crowd began to disperse.

"Wait." he said. "Harry, Andromeda, Teddy can you stay there's something I need to tell you."

Caly sat on the edge of Scor's bed next to Al. Andromeda and Harry sat in the chairs and Teddy stood behind them, leaning on his grandmothers chair. Rose was sitting at the bottom of Scor's bed, curled up at his feet. He seemed to think before speaking as if he wanted to chose his words very carefully.

"I need to tell you what happened when I died. I asked you to stay because you're my family and you, Harry, have experienced something similar." They just nodded and waited for him to continue with whatever he was going to say.

"When I died I woke up in Kings Cross." Harry nodded and sat forward. "I was alone for a while." he said. "I was there and there was no one else but Al had told me what this place was, he told me what had happened to you so I presumed I was here for a reason. Then my mother came." Scor looked down his eyes filled with tears and Caly reached over and hugged him.

"She told me that she was dead, she was going to go on. She told me that I did have a choice though. I go back."  
"How?"  
"Because your parents saved my fathers life, twice. My father owes his life and therefore I owe mine to you. However one of those debts was paid when Grandmother Narcissa saved your life, Harry, in the forest." Harry nodded. "I fulfilled the other debt tonight, I saved Rose."

"Okay, so how did you come back to life."  
"I don't really understand but it was something to do with the fact that now the debt was paid my life is just mine. It's like 2-1=1, kind of thing. I still live for just me." Harry tilted his head to the side.  
"What?"  
"It's like when you had a part of Voldermorts soul in you that died and so you lived. Well the debt was paid and so now I'm free to live my life."  
"I didn't think it works like that." said Harry "Well not in my experience; the man died."  
"Yeah but did you call it in?"  
"Yes."  
"I gave mine willingly. I got a second one."  
"So you don't have to save their lives anymore."  
"No but I would."  
"Yeah but be careful you won't come back to life." Scor shrugged.  
"Not the point of a sacrifice." Harry inclined his head.

"Wait. Wait. Wait." said Teddy. "I'm confused. Did you know about this?"  
"About what?"  
"That you'd live if you sacrificed yourself."  
"No. I only heard about this from my mother, in Kings Cross. It took me ages to get my head around it."  
"It took you a day to understand that."  
"What?"  
"You died for like a day."  
"Oh, yeah well I was never going to see my mother again excuse me for taking a day out of my time to say to goodbye to her." said Scor loudly. Then he started crying. Caly shot Teddy a 'you moron' look before turning to comfort her best friend. Harry leant back in his chair and beckoned Teddy down to his level.

"Teddy I thought you might understand how hard this is."  
"Yeah, I know but I've been you know looking forward to it and then he dies."  
"Yeah, just be gentle."  
"Sorry."

When Scor's tears subsided he looked even more pale and a few minutes later he collapsed back onto his pillows and fell asleep. Harry, Teddy and Andromeda got up to take their leave.

"I think he's good hands for now." she heard Harry say as they left the hospital wing. "You may be blood relatives but if they're all not 'brother' and 'sister' I don't know who is."


	20. End of a Year

End of a Year

The rest of the term past quickly enough. They spent most of it in the hospital wing because, although Scor had regained the motor functions for the upper half of his body, he couldn't walk. He couldn't stand even. The first time he tried was such a drain on his energy that he collapsed and was unconscious for two whole days. It was the start of a long slow recovery process. Every day Andromeda, and Teddy on his days off from training, would come in the morning and help him out of bed. From here on they would have to help him regain his ability to walk. It was very much, Caly mused, like muggle physiotherapy. It seemed that this was something Madame Pomfrey had not been expecting this and she had wanted to refer Scor to St Mungos where they might have someone who had dealt with this before but Scor refused to go. He wouldn't say why but it didn't take a genius, in Caly's opinion, to figure it out. Something bad had obviously happened to him in St Mungos. In the evenings Caly, Rose and Al would come and take over the duties that mainly involved supporting him and walking with him. Helping his body become re accustomed to walking.

His mothers funeral took place the first weekend he woke up and was a very private affair. Scor was in a wheelchair, pushed by Teddy. Al had wanted to push it but Harry had said no so Caly, Rose and Al walked by him in silence. Harry was invited and so was James, much to everyone's surprise. Scor said it was because he had been there in the dungeons. He had been there. James had never actually met Mrs Malfoy because he'd come to the main place after she'd died but he didn't say no. That was it, just eight people. Scor said she wouldn't want anymore unless she'd known them. Mr Malfoy hadn't come.

After that weekend Scor had gone down hill. The fight that had been shown to get to the funeral, his desire to walk had just evaporated, floated out of the open hospital wing window and out into the grounds, away over the mountains. It was clear he couldn't find the reason to anymore. It was like being left with an empty shell instead of a real person. Scor did everything he was told to by Madame Pomfrey but he didn't want it, he didn't try and it made the entire thing counter-productive. It exhausted him. It was probably going to kill him, unless they did something. And they had tried. Caly had talked to Scor on many occasions, drawing on memories she preferred to keep locked away but it wasn't the same. There was one very big difference.

Caly had never known her parents. Caly didn't have anything to miss. She could miss the idea of them. She could cry over the fact she wanted them. Or she could read the dog eared, worn scrap of paper that was her only link to them. But she couldn't miss them like Scor could cry for them, and miss his mother. That didn't mean she didn't but Caly had learnt long ago not to dwell on the life she had been to young to remember. In the end most of the time Caly pretended she had never had parents. It helped with the pain. If anyone asked she had grown up in a care home her whole life because really she had. It was all just a matter of perspective. She didn't know how her parents had treated her when she had lived with them and as she couldn't remember should she count it as part of her life?

It had been two weeks of slow but sure disintegration on Scor's part before an end had been put to it. Caly hadn't been there when it had happened, none of them had, it had been in lesson time but it was one of Teddy's days off and so he came to help Scor walk. Teddy hadn't seen Scor since the funeral. He had been busy on some mission that was an essential part of his exam. So when he had seen Scor, pale and empty eyed it must have been quite a shock. She wasn't quite sure what had happened, just that when Andromeda had left the room Teddy had talked to Scor. Scor hadn't said what it was about. He hadn't said very much, because he'd been climbing into bed when they got there, pale, tired and wan but a small fire had been kindled in his eyes, you could just see it burning.

That's where they were sitting now, the three of them, in the hospital wing around Scor's bedside. Across their laps was the Charms essay Professor Flitwick had set them. It was, as he put it, 'a good marker of what is to come next year'. Caly didn't like it one bit. She figured that if it really got bad and Rose wouldn't help her she could get James to do it. James was very good at Charms, despite the fact he didn't work for it. Al groaned and slammed the book shut, deciding, too, that it was too hard. Rose glanced up and shook her head slightly and said she wouldn't help him, normally if that happened they'd turn to Scor who was much more laid back about copying but they couldn't do that here. Rose had one of Scor's hands resting on the piece of parchment that was shaming Caly and Al's work. Rose had become fiercely protective of Scor, it was sort of sweet and sort of funny. Especially the look on Scor's face when he woke up and found Rose curled like a cat a the bottom of his bed, something that happened a lot. Rose couldn't get over the fact that Scor had willingly given his life for her and varied between being furious at him to crying about it in fits of gratitude all of this was coupled with the fact that, except to go to classes, Rose never left the hospital wing. She was eventually allowed to sleep there when he woke up, another benefit of being a war hero's child. Rose being allowed to sleep there lead to Caly and Al sleeping there too, often in the visitors chairs their heads resting on each others shoulders.

Al looked at Caly as she too closed her Charms text book and rolled up her essay.  
"What are you doing this summer?" he asked. Caly looked up at him surprised then rolled her eyes.  
"Nothing, I'm going back to the care home. I have six weeks of boredom ahead of me, so promise you'll write." Rose nodded but Al just looked thoughtful "What?" she asked as he continued to stare at her. Rose looked over at her cousin who met her eyes and tilted his head once towards Caly and then at himself. Rose frowned then her face split into the first proper smile in weeks and she nodded vigorously.  
"What?" said Caly, annoyed that the two of them could communicate like that.  
"Well I was wondering because, Scor is going to live Andromeda's don't forget, if you would like to spend the summer at mine."  
"What?" she said surprised. Al fidgeted nervously. Caly knew about the whole thing with staying at the Burrow but summer was one of the two times his family got to see him, when he wasn't hurt, did they really want some, well not stranger, but other person intruding?  
"Well not all the time, but it can be if you want. 'Cause I know you don't have any friends at this home of yours and well that doesn't sound like a great way to spend summer. And James and my dad like you and you could share a room with my sister, she likes everybody, though she'll bug you like hell about Hogwarts I'll have to give things you're not allowed to tell her. But yeah, anyway, I was wondering. And I thought my family over Rose's house because, well, I suggested the idea to my dad 'cause he kind of knows about that and he was fine with it and well you know my family better than Rose's." He tailed off looking at Caly apprehensively.  
"Um." said Caly "Do you mean the whole summer?"  
"Yeah like from the moment we get off from Kings Cross you can come back to mine till right up until we board again on September 1st." Caly could barely contain her excitement, the thought of having a good summer, a summer where she might actually enjoy herself seemed too much to ask but of all the things that had happened, definitely one of the most normal.  
"Are you sure?"  
"Yes!" said Al, if possible a little exasperated. "It'll be fun I hang round with Rose like every other day and if Scor's at Andromeda we'll be able to meet up all the time."  
"And I thought there was actually a possibility of getting away from you nutters." she said shaking her head, the grin creeping across the face helping to clarify any doubts. Al smiled to and Rose let out an excited squeal and hugged her across Scor. Madame Pomfrey came out to tell them to stop disturbing the patients. To which Caly responded that they couldn't. When Madame Pomfrey had frowned she had said there is only one person here, meaning it would be stop disturbing the patient. Madame Pomfrey had huffed off talking about the cheek of children whilst they dissolved into laughter.

After that night things had taken a definite U-turn in the right direction, whatever Teddy had said had worked wonders because Scor was doing everything properly. He wanted to walk. He had this fierce determination back, the look of hopelessness when he failed, the days when he pushed his body too far. But it wouldn't kill him anymore, it was under control. He had more visitors now, he had had a lot to begin, or people who had wanted to see him but Scor didn't want people to see him in his state so he had turned them away. Now he would let in the Weasley family, the rest of the Quidditch team and the rest of the first years. He was, of course, greatly admired through out the school and Peter's father, Justin Finch-Fletchly, who was the Minister for Magic, though no one had bothered to tell Caly this, had come and offered him an order of merlin but Scor had turned it down. He had said he was honoured but he didn't want it, he didn't want to be reminded of what had happened down there.

It was the last week of term and there exam results had just come out. Caly, Al and Rose were hurrying to the hospital wing, they wanted to give Scor his results. It had taken quite a bit of persuasion to get Professor Longbottom to give them to them but after pointing out that there was no one else he could give it to and that they wouldn't read them because that would be rude and there would be no point because Scor would tell them anyway. Professor Longbottom had sighed when he stared into the three set expressions on the 11 year olds faces, of course Scor would tell them his results. There was no point denying that, and Rose would never break that kind of rule, she was far too much like her mother for that. He watched them go and wondered if he was going to survive as their Head of House, he resolved to talk to Professor McGonagall later, after all she had dealt with Harry, Ron and Hermione and the Weasley twins. If anyone knew about troublesome Gryffindors and how to deal with them she was the person to ask.

"Scor!" shouted Rose as they came flying through the hospital wing doors, Rose in the highest spirits, of course. "Scor we got are-oh." Rose let out a long gasp at what she sees and she jerked immediately to a halt. Al and Caly crashed into her but Caly could immediately see what had caused her to stop, Scor was standing up all by himself. Teddy and Andromeda were either side of him watching carefully. He looked up at his friends, bitting his lip in nervous anticipation.

Caly felt her jaw drop as Scor took a step forward. It was slow, it was laboured, but it was a step. She could feel the grin that was forcing it's way onto her face, and nothing could pop the bubble of true happiness she felt as she watched the smile slowly spread across Scor's face as he took another step. Then another. It was like a baby, learning to walk and they were like parents, awe struck, thrilled. Scor crossed the room and stood before them his face triumphant, jubilation etched across the once pale features. Slowly, slowly they followed him back to his bed and when he reached it he collapsed onto it with the appearance of one who had just run 10 miles. With a distinct effort he swung his legs around and pulled the blankets up, nothing masking the joy of finally being able to walk again.

For awhile the friends were speechless. They couldn't think of anything to say to Scor. Rose had his results clutched tightly in her hand but she had forgotten about them, the shock of seeing him walk by himself had blown everything from their minds. Scor was slumped back breathing slightly heavily but he didn't look like he was going to pass out or anything which was an infinite relief to Caly. After a couple of minutes sat in silence Andromeda and Teddy got to their feet.

"We should be going." Andromeda said. She bent down and hugged Scor and Teddy gave him a slap on the back  
"Told you it was worth it." he said. Scor looked up into Teddy's eyes and he smiled.  
"Shut up." They both waved goodbye to their friends and headed off towards the doors and it was as they were waving Rose remembered the envelope she had clutched in her left hand.

"Wait!" she called, they turned and frowned but came back to the bed. "We got our exam results today. I got yours, don't worry I didn't read it." she added as she handed it to Scor, who rolled his eyes.  
"It wouldn't have made a difference."  
"Yeah you're right 'cause we're pretty sure we know what you got."  
"How?"  
"Just read we'll tell you after." said Al.

Scor opened the envelope and read the results with a held breath. When he got to the end his face relaxed and he flung the paper at Andromeda who immediately took it with Teddy peering over her shoulder.

"Let me guess." he said "Rose was joint top of the year with me." Rose nodded "She also came top in Transfiguration and History of Magic where as I beat her in Charms and Astronomy." Rose allowed herself a tiny, but friendly scowl.  
"Then Caly came top in Herbology and Potions and Al came Defence Against the Dark Arts." there was more nodding and then a short pause broken by Teddy  
"How the hell are you lot not in Ravenclaw?" he asked incredulously "When I was here the people that came top in the year were always Ravenclaws and look at you, four Gryffindors who beat all the Ravenclaws, bet they'll love you." The foursome smirked between themselves and Teddy felt like he'd stuck his foot into some sort of private joke.

"What is it?"  
"Well we were all nearly put in Ravenclaw." said Scor honestly "In fact we could have been in any of the houses except Slytherin."  
"Apart from me." said Al. "I could have been a Slytherin but the hat was more keen on Hufflepuff. It went on and on about loyalty and how loyal I would be to my friends and then I told it that loyalty is all well and good but what's the point if you have no one to be loyal too? Then I ended up in Gryffindor."  
Teddy stared at him for a moment "You were nearly a badger."  
"Hey so was I." said Scor  
"And me." said Caly.  
"I wasn't." said Rose "It was more keen on Ravenclaw." Teddy blinked  
"So the hat didn't actually want to put you in Gryffindor."  
"No it said I could be." said Caly "It told me I showed great courage in the grounds, it was my choice in the end. I choose to be with my friends."  
"Same with me. Well it didn't tell me I showed great courage in the grounds because nothing happened to me there but it said I had shown great courage in my childhood. I was brave and I stood up for what was right, in the end, like Caly, I got to make my own choice."  
"You chose Gryffindor, despite the fact you no friends there." said Teddy.

"Yeah, because you have to admit if there was ever a way to change people's views about the world it was by being sorted into Gryffindor and well my friends followed, I call that win, win." Teddy shook his head. It was weird, here were three people, it seemed pointless to count the friendship between Rose and Al because they were cousins and had known each other for their entire lives, that had formed such strong bonds of friendship in just one day, one train journey and they were already making choices that would effect their lives based off each other. It baffled his mind.

The end of term feast was the first time Scor had left the hospital wing. He hadn't moved back into his dorm but Madame Pomfrey had deemed him strong enough to walk down to the Great Hall for dinner, he would sit for the most part. The hall was decked out in blue and bronze, the colours of Ravenclaw. The competition had been quite close between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw what with Gryffindor winning the house cup but when at the end of the year Gryffindors slacked off and caused trouble that lost their house points, Ravenclaws pushed harder to finish the year at their best, which earned them points. That and the disastrous end of year prank of Freddie and his friends. They had been caught stealing the staffs robes out of the wardrobe. What they had wanted to do, they wouldn't say but they had been docked a load of points. This had placed them in third place in the end because they had won the Quidditch Cup.

The feast was enjoyable because and the first years found themselves bunched together at the end of the table laughing and talking. All of the occupants of dorm 2, with the exception of Phil who had always been nice to him, were being much nicer to Scor. Martin was even being relatively calm, he at least wasn't talking at 100 miles per hour about a subject they all knew nothing about. James drifted over for part of the feast with his friends, Colin and the Scarmanders. They came over on the pretext of stealing the chocolate gateaux that had appeared at Roses elbow but really James wanted to make sure that the four of them were coping, needless to say this was the longest any of them had spent in the great hall in a very long time.

When the plates had cleared and everyone was full Professor McGonagall got to her feet. Caly could see Vic swelling with pride over at the Ravenclaw table where she sat next to the head boy, the head girl badge pinned to her chest.

"Firstly I would like to congratulate the Ravenclaw house on winning the house cup through hard work, intelligence and study." There was cheering from the Ravenclaws and polite applause from the rest. There was something funny about the way she had worded it, something was coming, a but or however.  
"However." Bingo, thought Caly. "I have some points I would like to award." She could hear a rustling of whispers and she turned to raise her eyebrows at her friends. Where had they heard this before?

"Firstly to Mr James Potter who showed loyalty to those close and distant in the face of danger, I award 30 points to Gryffindor." James' mouth dropped open. Every head at the Gryffindor table turned to look at him. 30 points! James got points few and far between and the ones he did get were eclipsed by the amount he lost. Eventually they burst into applause and everyone close patted him on the back.

"Secondly both to Mister Albus Potter and Miss Rose Weasley for placing themselves in great personal risk for a person they did not know I award 50 points, each to Gryffindor." The cheering grew louder this time and the four of them exchanged small taught smiles, knowing what was to come.

"Next to Miss Catalina."  
"Caly." she said with a pained look on her face, her friends laughed  
"Hautly, for the continued pursuit of good, no matter what the cost. 75 points to Gryffindor house." Caly breathed out a gasp. 75 points! They were in second place!  
"And finally to Mister Scorpius Malfoy who made the ultimate sacrifice I award Gryffindor house 100 points!" The Gryffindors went wild. They'd won the house cup. Scor was bright red in the face as he was buried under his house mates.

"Now I will change the decorations but I have made some slight alterations." said Professor McGonagall. Everyone looked up as the banners changed from blue and bronze to red and gold and saw that each one contained a long strip of black, a commemorative to Scor's mother. Professor McGonagall inclined her head to Scor and he met her eyes and a silent 'thank you' and 'your welcome' passed between them.

The addition of the black sent a rather subdued silence through the hall, the Gryffindors all calmed down, their excitement forgotten. Their eyes focused on the four younger students at the end of the table whose eyes were hard. They looked very much like the veterans of the war on the anniversary of it, they were three 12 year olds and one 11 year old, but they'd faced and in Caly's case seen death already. It had been about 20 years since anyone had been killed on Hogwarts grounds. Nothing of the sort had happened since the final battle between Harry and Voldermort and as a result the students paid their respects to a person they had never known. Eventually the noise picked up and the students got to their feet preparing to head to bed, their last night in the castle. Caly stood up and waited for Scor to do the same. He seemed energised after being out and about but also the respect being shown. Things were changing.

Professor McGonagall sat down into her chair with a sigh and looked back around the IC, inner circle, as they had coined themselves. They were waiting for Harry to arrive, the only non-staff member who was party to all the knowledge. Things were changing in Hogwarts, she thought with a heavy heart. No trouble, well no serious trouble, until now. There had been three deaths. The two others were members of staff no less. Hardingly's was easier to hush up thanks to the fact that they were Siamese twins. The ministry knew of course you couldn't hide a death but she hadn't wanted them to know just how involved one of her students had been in the death. The other one was a shock. Professor McGonagall could honestly say she barely knew the man who taught arithmancy, none of them did. He was the only one who didn't always live in full time. No one missed him but it was like losing a part of you. It just shouldn't happen. However no serious inquiry was being made as there was no proof that he had been killed on the school property.

Harry stepped out of the fire place with a sigh and brushed the soot of his robes with a sub conscious gesture. All the teachers in the room turned to look at him.

"Well?" asked McGonagall.  
"Nothing." he said. "There's no link between Jack Winters and Voldermort. He was in America when Voldermort came back." Harry rubbed a hand over his mouth. "It doesn't make any sense."  
"Maybe he just found it." said Neville.  
"Maybe, but if you found a wand that was compatible with you, what is the one thing that you would do?"  
"Priori Incantatum." said Slughorn.  
"Exactly. It wouldn't take much to realise who had owned the wand even if he had been in America for the war." There was a pause then Neville said  
"Does it matter though? The wand is snapped in two and Winters is dead. Does it matter anymore?"  
"I guess not." said Harry. "I just wanted to know."  
"We all did." Harry nodded. "Things are changing here." he said, not sounding at all enthusiastic.  
"Maybe we found the perfect recipe for trouble." said Neville. "One Potter, one Weasley, one Malfoy and one muggle born student." There were a couple of appreciative chuckles at this.

"Gerald is still out there and he will come after Caly and most likely the rest, they did sort of spoil everything for him." Professor McGonagall said this soberly "But as long as we are prepared then there should be no problems about facing him when he does." Harry nodded.

"Well better be going home gotta set the house up for one more." he said with a smile. "Lily's going crazy about having someone to share her room with who goes to Hogwarts. She's bouncing off the walls, literally." He smiled. "Her accidental magic is pretty insane." All the teachers laughed. He walked to the fire. "Hopefully I won't see you in this office too soon. Otherwise see you soon." With a cheerful smile he vanished in a woosh of green that matched his eyes. Professor McGonagall watched him go with approval, he was doing what she had hoped he would, not worry too much and enjoy his life, whilst keeping an ear to the ground and being the first on hand if anything happened.

"Right." said McGonagall. "I think that's it. I need to read a couple of CV's for the post of Arithmancy and Transfiguration professor. I'll keep you all updated on my choices as the summer goes on and your input is more than welcome." They all nodded and left her office feeling disconcerted but generally reassured.

"Are you packed?"  
"For the 100th time yes."  
"Good because we need to pick up Scor from the hospital wing early, so you can't do it in the morning." There was a silence as Caly climbed into bed.  
"Are you sure you're packed?"  
"I've packed, Rose!"  
"Sure?"  
"Christ what do think I spent the last 2 hours doing?" There was another silence.  
"Who's Christ and what does he have to do with packing?" Caly let out an angry growl and wrenched the hangings round her bed shut.

The next day they went and picked up Scor from the hospital wing and accompanied him down to breakfast. Al, along with the rest of his dorm, had packed his trunk last night. Luckily for them Scor was very neat and it wasn't a difficult job at all. Caly felt a bit queasy eating breakfast for the last time in the great hall and looking at Scor's pale face, she could tell he felt exactly the same. They were leaving home to go stay with their friends and whilst they were looking forward to a good summer, Caly was going to miss this place.

Then there was the fear of moving in to a new house. It wasn't a fear, more an uncertainty. What if Lily didn't like her? According to Al she was very excited, but still what if she didn't get along with her? What would she do then? Al had told her this was really stupid as Caly was the one who got on with everyone and if she didn't get along with Lily she could just move in with Rose, probably. And if that didn't work they had a whole host of places she could stay, like Dom's, Vic was moving out so there was a spare bed. Scor wasn't so nervous as he knew his Aunty Andromeda, as he had started calling her, very well and he was perfectly happy to live with her but he was worried about his father popping up or Andromeda not wanting him anymore. This time Caly had told him that this was stupid. Firstly if his father turned up there was nothing he could do, Andromeda was a blood relative and Scor wanted to live with her so he had no court case. As for Andromeda wanting nothing to do with him anymore, well she had sat by his bedside every day for the past couple of weeks, why would she do that if she didn't genuinely care for Scor?

Soon they were in the little fleet of boats that Caly had missed on the journey there. It was quite a sight to see Hogwarts shrinking away from them, seated magnificently on the rocks. The sun shafting through the glass sparkled on the water and they had fun splashing each other once Hogwarts was out of sight. Scor, who hadn't been out in days, greatly benefited from the sun and the play and looked almost healthy when the boats drew to a halt. Whilst Rose and Al said goodbye to Hagrid, Caly and Scor located their luggage and had found a compartment for the four of them. Caly sat with her nose pressed against the window watching the station shrink away, feeling a pang of longing for the castle already.

The rest of the journey passed smoothly. Her friends bought loads of sweets for them all to share and they played exploding snap, traded chocolate frog cards and talked as the countryside flashed by their window. Vic came in on her last ever round as a Hogwarts prefect and was rewarded with a face full of melted chocolate, Al had left a chocolate frog packet in the sun. They all had a good laugh as she wiped it off and pointed out there was nothing she could do. Vic tried to verbally discipline them but all the while the corners of her mouth kept turning upwards. Freddie, Nick, Maise and Kay pranked them by somehow swapping their packet of Berite Botts Every Flavour Beans for a packet that contained beans that made you make farting noises every time you spoke. The effects took about 30 minutes to wear off. James also dropped in to 'check up' on them but this time he wasn't being so nice, it was funny because Caly had rarely seen the prankster side of James, that was slightly cruel, in action. In fact all the times he had spoken to her he had seemed genuinely concerned. His joke was not so funny or obvious but somehow Al ended up attached to the ceiling by his tongue. It appeared there was quite a crowd outside waiting for the spectacle to occur. They all laughed rather cruelly and James went off with them leaving the three other first years trying to figure out how to get him down. In the end Rose had found a spell in her textbook and after several goes Scor had pulled it off.

Al sat on the seat scowling as he made funny noises with his tongue. Caly sat with her head tilted to the side whilst Scor and Rose bickered about something they'd found in the book.  
"Hang on. Winters knew James." said Caly, they all turned to look at her, the noise ceasing.  
"What?"  
"Winters, Healer Jackson Winters." Scor winced realising what she was talking about.  
"What about him?" asked Rose  
"He told me he knew James. How?" Rose shrugged looking confused but Al's face cleared up.  
"Didn't I tell you."  
"Tell us what?" asked Scor.  
"I'll take that as no. James got Healer Winters fired at the end of last year. Hogwarts referred James to go see him about his behavioural problems and, well, James isn't the best behaved at the best of times but being referred to the psych ward at St Mungos really made him angry. I don't know what happened but James made Winters loose his job it was something really bad, I think dad hushed the whole thing up though."  
"Oh so that's why he hates them both, makes sense." said Caly.  
"Yeah."  
"Can't believe you forgot to tell us something like that though." said Scor.  
"Sorry I thought 'I'll tell them' but it was sort of distracting what with you being unable to walk and then you never brought it up so I guess I just sort of forgot about it and assumed you knew."  
"You are aware that those two things are contradictory." said Rose.  
"Not really." challenged Scor "He assumed we knew so he forgot. Cause and effect."  
"Yes but it wasn't worded that way it implied…." Caly rolled her eyes with Al as the two got into their next argument.

They had all changed into muggle clothes and had packed away all the possessions that they had used to occupy themselves as the train began to slow and pull into platform 9 ¾. Through the window and the steam she could see the families of the Hogwarts students gathered on the platform, tightly packed waiting to see, their children at long last. They jumped to their feet as the train jolted to a halt. The four heaved their luggage down from the racks and were about to leave when Scor turned back towards Al and Rose.

"I just wanted to say thanks." they looked at each other.  
"For what?" they asked  
"For giving me a chance." said Scor. "You're the first friends I ever had and it hasn't been easy for you. You've had a rough ride."  
"Not as rough as you." said Al  
"Besides it's all Caly she convinced us you were nice by springing to your defence." added Rose. Caly smiled as they all looked at her.  
"You know." she said "I know a lot of." she gave a half glance at Scor "Bad things happened because we're friends." Scor nodded. "But I dread to think what would have happened if we weren't." Scor nodded absently, and both Rose and Al grinned some more. "In the end I think it worked out okay." the four of them stepped of the train and Rose and Al were immediately buried in their family and Scor was swept up by Andromeda. Caly found herself carried along by the whole thing.  
"And why's that?" asked Scor as the four of them turned to face the barrier that separated school from summer.  
"Why do you think." she shouted as the four of them broke into a run. "We have each other!"

Kings Cross is a very busy station, there are constantly people rushing around trying to catch the trains before they leave. Because of this no one noticed the four kids leaning against the divide between platform 9 and 10, all out of breath but smiling. There were people waiting for them. An old women with her blue haired grandson. A tall red haired man, with his wife who had bushy brown hair and ginger son. The last family a small red haired daughter, a son a little older than the four children who had black hair and brown eyes, the women had red hair and the man had green eyes framed with round glasses and messy black hair that hung over a cut on his forehead. The four children got off the wall and walked towards them, separating but not before hugging each other long and hard.

The blonde boy walked over to the old women and the blue haired boy. The older boy clapped him on the shoulder and commandeered his trolley. The girl who had brown hair that was hinted with red walked towards the red haired man and brown haired women. She was embraced and gave the boy a little shove, that was clearly playful. The black haired boy wondered over to the last family accompanied by the very short brown haired girl. For one moment the 13 people standing there felt an odd sense of satisfaction. They could be anyone. The scene was being played out all over the station. Then the spell of the moment was broken by the older boy who cried

"Lily's a snake!" and ran towards the exit. The little girl burst into tears and her mother put her arms around her to comfort her and the other two women bent down to fuss over her. The ginger boy started trying to make her laugh. The black haired man ran off to berate his son. The other two men decided to leave the scene quietly with the trolleys and the four other children were left standing there laughing their heads off.

* * *

**_A/N: That is the end of this book but I am going to write a sequel, I should have the first chapter up quite soon as I'm on holiday, yay! Please leave me a review on how you thought this book was and if there's anything you think I should improve on for the second book. It will be imaginatively titled 'The Second Year' so look out. Just a quick thank you to all the people who reviewed, story alerted and favourited. I had a lot of fun writing it and I'm glad you enjoyed reading it, too.  
Thanks for reading.  
From,  
Sopphires _**


	21. Author Note

_**Okay someone who story alerted this asked me to do this so everyone who story alerted it can know when it's out; so 'The Second Year' is up. I posted it yesterday. The description is:**_

_**'Caly, Rose, Al and Scor are back for their second year at Hogwarts but what starts out as a harmless game soon turns into something much more sinister.' **_

_**So go read and enjoy!  
**__**Sopphires.**_


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